Relevance of Amalgamation
by tryautumn
Summary: Emma Manning has always grown up in the shadow of her runaway older sister, Sarah. When Sarah returns after almost a year away from home, Emma can't help but notice both her siblings' secrecy. What happens when Emma finds out about Sarah's clones? And if Emma and Sarah are true sisters, where did they come from? / Focus on season one family relationships, especially b/w S & kids.
1. O' Mama, Where Are You?

As soon as the door had slammed shut behind her, she kicked off her shoes and swung her bag onto the sofa in the next room. "Hello? Anybody home?" She called across the house from her wavering stance in the hallway. When there was no reply she ran up the stairs and straight into her dark, musky room, launching herself onto the bed.

Reaching over to her stereo and switching it on, the girl gave life to The Clash's "London Calling" and picked up the rolled joint on her bedside table. After lighting it, she fed it through her lips and took a long drag before a deep exhaled sigh.

The teen put her hand to her forehead and covered her eyes, enjoying the rarity of relaxation. Taking another hit, her eyes still closed, she heard the familiar squeaky tone of her door open and spluttered out the smoke in a coughing fit.

"Hey, monkey." She managed to spit out as she tried to wave away the smoke and hastily left the room, taking the seven-year-old along with her by the hand.

"What were you doing, aunty Em?" The little girl asked innocently.

Em had already reached the bottom step and so grabbed the little girl and swung her around until she reached the ground, causing a cascade of giggles to ricochet off the hallway walls.

"Where's Mrs S, Kira?" Em asked, ignoring the previous question.

A little finger pointed to the kitchen and so Em quickly grabbed Kira's coat and shouted, "We're going to the park, S!", before hurrying the girl out the door to avoid a gruelling confrontation with her foster mother.

"Put your coat on, monkey. It's freezing!" Em told her niece as they swayed on the swings. Kira obediently did as she was told and then hopped back onto the swing. "What did you do at school today?"

Kira pouted as if in deep thought, making Em smile, before carefully articulating her answer, "We learnt more maths and I read two books!" Em raised her eyebrows to show how impressed she was, "And then we had to draw pictures of our family for parents evening."

Em sighed and looked at her feet, "What did you draw, monkey?"

"I drew all of us standing outside Mrs S' house. Me, mummy, Uncle Felix, Mrs S and you."

After a few more swings in silence, the little girl spoke up again, "There's a boy who laughed and said that I had drawn an imaginary family. Because they haven't seen mummy pick me up from school." Kira finished and stared at her aunt.

Em sighed, defeated; as much as she cared for her older sister, she hated Sarah for having left Kira and for making Em have to explain to the girl that her mum might never come home. "Well, how about I get Uncle Felix to come with me when I pick you up from school sometime this week, yeah? We'll do until mummy comes home, won't we?" She smiled at the little girl, pushing her swing a little to prompt a smile from Kira.

"When _is_ mummy coming home?" She asked through her giggles.

Em swung back and threw herself off the swing, landing in the crunchy gravel perfectly, and spun to face her niece, "I don't know, monkey. Soon I hope." She said, holding her arms out to the little girl who willingly jumped into them, before lowering her to the ground and giving her a cuddle.

"I miss her," She heard Kira's muffled whisper and her eyes began to sting.

"Me too, monkey." She replied, pulling the little girl in closer to her.

Painting always controlled Felix's emotions, it could relax him, take him off to another world full of colours and shapes but it could also turn him on, especially when Teddy was around, the inspiration behind the majority of his phallic designs.

"Mmm, beautiful Teddy. Have you been working out?" He asked suggestively whilst painting the naked portrait of the overweight black man.

His muse was soon broken when he heard the familiar ringtone of his phone and so rested his brush and plucked the mobile from the coffee table before plunking himself next to the naked man on his couch.

"Hello?" His soft voice rang.

"Fe?" The rough, British-estuary accent, of which both he and his sisters possessed, sounded through the other end of call. He sprang up from his seated position immediately.

"Sarah?!" He asked almost desperately, although he knew he was correct.

"Hey, Fe," Her voice sounded strained but he could tell she was okay. "I'm back."

"Holy shit, Sarah! Where are you?"

"Meet me at Bobbi's, yeah? Now please, Fe." Her urgency was more than enough to make him sprint around the loft picking up his clothes and shooing Teddy out the door.

"I'll be there as soon as I can." He rushed, pulling on his shirt. The line went dead and he dropped his phone, pulling on his jeans. "Toodles," he waved slightly at the man leaving his apartment.

Straightening his coat in the mirror, Felix caught his flustered countenance and tried to calm himself, "She's back, she's fine. Everything's okay." Then hurriedly, he left the loft and headed for the bar a few blocks away.

He spotted her straight away, sitting on the counter in the dim-lit bar. Strutting towards her, Felix leant towards her long, dark hair, "Oh my God, you look like crap." He stated before she spun around, beaming at him and began showering him kisses amongst their loving embrace.

"But seriously. Ew, alright." He feigned disgust, pushing her away.

"How's life, Felix?" She asked, tilting her head back.

"This long, no see? You don't get to know."

Sarah laughs, "I didn't miss your birthday, did I?" Pulling on his coat.

"No, I know. It's totally pedestrian, the only reason I'm here."

Once they had found a table and ordered himself a Guinness, Felix started his questioning, "So, how's Vic the Dick?"

Sarah half smiled, "Yeah, I hit him first this time," She leant forward and reached towards her bag, but still maintained eye contact with him, "With an ash tray, so, he's a little blue." Finally her head cocked to the side and Felix followed her fingers, revealing a clear bag holding a white substance.

"Coke?" He asks.

"It's Vic's. Think you can flip it to one of your Bay Street blow boys?"

Felix sighs, "You have no idea what that will cost me,"

Sarah furrows her brow, "I'll give you 20%."

"I wasn't talking about my cut, Sarah, I was talking about my pride! What are you up to?" He eyes her suspiciously.

She looks at him determinedly, "I'm here for Kira, Fe."

"After what happened? You really think Mrs S is gonna let you take her?"

Sarah shakes her head, "She's my daughter, she's gonna have to."

Felix stares at her intently, "You've been gone for almost a year, Sarah. I'm not judging, I'm just saying, alright?"

Sarah sips at her drink, "Yeah, so I'm back on the run. A usual Sarah shite storm. And on that note, something really weird just happened at the train station." She looked into her drink.

"What?"

She took a deep breath, "I saw a girl kill herself."

"Ew." Felix scrunched up his nose, "A jumper?"

"Yeah and she looked…exactly like me, Felix." She waited for his response.

Smiling, he tilted his head, "What you mean?" She pulled out her bag and held a small black purse before rummaging inside it, "Oh, you robbed her body…"

"No! She left her bag on the platform." Sarah explained and then pulled out a driving licence, holding it up to Felix.

He took it from her eager grasp and sighed before noticing that the girl in the photo did, in fact, look exactly like Sarah, "Okay, that's weird."

"Yeah, you think?"

He looked at it closely so he could read the name, "Elizabeth Childs. It's you with a nice haircut."

She smiled, "And a nice address. What the hell, Fe, did I have a twin sister?" She asks, exasperatedly.

"Well now, when you're a poor little orphan, foster wretch, anything's possible. Or so we tell ourselves." He hands her back the card.

"I've got to go up to her flat," Sarah smiles, slotting the card back into the purse.

"Yeah, to find out who she is to rob the rest of her shit." Felix sighs.

Sarah rolls her eyes and starts to pack up all her stuff, "Try and get 20K for it, yeah?"

"Alright, fine. What about Vic?" Felix asks, slightly worried about his sister's abusive ex.

Sarah downs the rest of her drink before getting up to kiss her brother's cheek, "I'll call you."

"Okay," Felix almost whines as he watches Sarah leave, wondering how soon he will actually hear from her again."

"Go and say goodnight to your auntie, love." Em hears Mrs S' thick Irish accent from the kitchen whilst she is momentarily distracted from her book.

Within the next instant, Kira has run over to her and presses her hand on the older girl's cheek. "Goodnight Aunty Em." Em sits up and grabs her niece, setting her on her lap and tickles her.

"Goodnight, monkey. Love you," Em says, kissing the girl's cheek.

Kira's laughter slows and she manages to speak, "Love you too."

Em lets her go and watches Kira join hands with a waiting Mrs S and ascend up the stairs. But before too long, her peace is interrupted.

"I got a call from school again today, only this time they wanted me to confirm that I got the letter informing me about your suspension." Mrs S tells Em as she stands opposite the teenager's lounging form on the couch.

Em rolls her eyes and throws her book onto her lap, crossing her arms, "Well, what do you want me to say?"

"Sit up straight," Mrs S moans at Em who slowly obeys, "I want to know where you have been for the past few days whilst skipping school.

"Emma Manning, you will look at me when I'm speaking to you!" S shouts when the teenager doesn't reply.

"I was out."

"Maybe if you adjusted your attitude, young lady, that school might just grow on you." Mrs S exclaimed.

"There's nothing wrong with my attitude. I don't like school." Em retorted quietly as she stood from the sofa, eager for sleep.

"Well, that's too bloody tough, Emma. Because whilst you're living under my roof, you have to go."

"No, S! I'm not like any of the kids at that school. I shouldn't be there!" Em pipes up, getting more aggravated when her foster mother doesn't show any signs of understanding how much she hates high school.

"Oh that's a ridiculous excuse. And it doesn't explain where you've been when you haven't been in lessons! This attitude is ridiculous, Emma."

"I just hate being stuck in a house being treated like a child by a woman who isn't even my real mum! When everyone else gets to just… leave!" Em slightly regrets it when it comes out, but it's too late.

Mrs S walks towards the teenager who has just begun up the stairs, "If you're going to act like your sister, I'll have no problem letting you leave this house in a year, just like her. But, unfortunately, in the meantime, you are stuck here with me, because I am the closest thing to a mother you have. Even if I'm not yours biologically, you are my child and I will take care of you for as long as you need me to.

"But just remember, there is a little girl upstairs whose mother has already abandoned her and as much as I might disapprove of your behaviour, _she_ would be crushed if you left her too." Mrs S spat out, placing a lingering stare on Em before turning around and heading back to the kitchen.

Emma stared after her, bitterly and slightly shocked. Finally she continued climbing the stairs and walked past Kira's room, peering through the door to watch her already sleeping form, softening her mood instantly, before reaching her room.

Sarah turns the key in the lock and smirks when the door opens.

"Hello?" She calls, peering round the door. When she was certain there was no response she edged into the apartment and shut the door behind her.

Wandering through the house, Sarah was impressed with its modern décor and couldn't help herself but touch everything, thinking about how much she could get for all of this expensive stuff.

She pulled her hood down and walked into the bedroom and sat on the double bed, fingering the soft satin covers until she spotted the walk-in wardrobe. She traced the sleeve of a man's shirt, "Boyfriend," she acknowledged. Walking over to the less colourful section of the closet, she found women's clothes, "Pff, squares." She scoffed.

Sarah walked into the kitchen, finding pictures stuck onto the fridge by magnets. She looked into the photos and saw her reflection. This Elizabeth Childs really did look identical to her.

The phone ringing made her jump out of her confused stoop and she frantically searched for it in her bag, "Hey, Fe."

"So, how's your new apartment?"

Sarah spotted a filing cabinet in the corner of the room and her eyes widened with glee as she strutted towards it, "Great. This girls got a pretty nice life," She explained whilst rummaging through the files in the second draw down. "Aha!" She exclaimed.

"What? You find something interesting? Some scandalous sex tape or 50 grand?" Felix questioned excitedly over the phone.

Sarah brought the file to the table and hooked the phone between her ear and shoulder so she could use both hands to flick through the pages, "Nah, bank statements and shit. She goes by Beth and her boyfriend's away for the weekend." She states, reading from a pad by the laptop.

"Bloody hell!" Sarah almost jumped in the air whilst her eyes scanned over the page to check if she'd seen it right, "She's got seventy-five thousand dollars in her savings account!"

"Say it again?" Felix asked in disbelief.

"75K. The account was just opened like… three weeks ago," Sarah trailed off reading the rest of the bank statement. "That's enough to lose bloody Vic, yeah? We can get away with this Fe, find somewhere nice with Kira."

"Sarah, any second someone's gonna ID the body, and it's game over. So you should really just drop it all right now." Felix advised.

"Whatever," Sarah said, staring at the screen where she had put videos of Beth's life up. "Let me get some things sorted out and I'll be over in a bit." She informed her foster brother.

Felix sighed, "Alright, see you in a bit."

Sarah hung up, throwing the phone onto the couch and fished out Beth's credit card, ready to swipe it against the open fridge, starting the con-art process.

Emma had woken up fairly early, seeing as she was suspended and didn't need to get up at eight. She got dressed and bounded down the stairs and went straight into the kitchen. She placed a kiss on Kira's head, who was eating her cereal, and popped a piece of bread in the toaster.

"Morning." She said, cautiously.

"Morning, Em." She replied, suspiciously, eying up her foster daughter. "Why are you up so early?"

"I'm going to the library." Em answered, pouring herself a cup of coffee.

"Hmm, right." S said, questionably, rolling her eyes. "Come on, love. Finish that up and go pop your shoes on." She directed at Kira who took a final slurp of her cereal and bounced off into the hallway.

Emma slid into Kira's chair in her absence and took a sip of her drink. "Um, Siobhan. I'm sorry about what I said last night. I was just really wound up because of school and everything and then Kira was asking about Sarah…And you are my mum, you know, always have been. You've raised me since before I can remember, so…I'm sorry for what I said." Finally she looked up to the elder woman.

Mrs S smiled, reaching over the table to take the girl's hand in hers, "Well, thank you for the apology, love. Certainly wasn't expecting that." S stroked Em cheek but then raised her eyebrows, "But don't think you're off the hook about your suspension!"

Emma smiled and rolled her eyes as Kira came running back into the room.

"Right then, you ready, monkey?" S asked Kira.

The little girl nodded and pulled on her coat, "Bye, Em."

"Bye, monkey. Have fun." Em called over her shoulder as she prepared her toast and gave her niece a little wave.

"See you later, love. Don't give 'em too much grief today." S called to Em as she guided Kira towards the front door.

Em stuck her tongue out at her foster mum and sat down to eat her toast when the house was empty.

Once she had finished her breakfast, Emma swung her bag across her shoulder and walked into the crisp morning air. It took her about twenty minutes to walk from Mrs S' house to Felix's loft but she knew the route so well, she didn't even notice her surroundings until she was welcomed by the familiar graffiti-filled building.

She ran up the stairs and pulled on the large door to open it but it was locked. With a frown, she knocked three times.

"Who's there?" Felix's muffled voice sounded from the other side of the door.

Em rolled her eyes, "Your favourite person in the world!" She called.

A moment later she heard the screwdriver being pulled out of the lock and the door was yanked open to reveal her big brother. Within the next second, Felix had her in his arms and towed her into the room.

"Hey, Em," He said lovingly, smothering her with kisses.

Em hugged her brother back, "Alright, Fe. Calm down, you saw me last week!" She reminded him, surprised at how happy he was to see her.

"I know, I know." He lightly pushed her onto the sofa and sat beside her, smiling.

"Seriously, Fe, what's up? Why are you acting so weird?"

Felix played with his little sister's hair, much to her chagrin, thinking about whether or not he should tell Em that their sister would be here at any moment. "Nothing! Can't I show you any love?" He said defensively.

Em rolled her eyes at him and looked at his newest painting, clearly of Kira and herself. She jumped up to inspect it closer and then fitted her posture and smiled to match the girl in the painting, "Ooh, how do I look?" She asked, batting her eyelashes, mockingly.

Fe threw a cushion at her, which she narrowly dodged. "Hey, I like that one okay. You both look somewhat adorable."

"Nah, nah, it's good…Was _that_ really necessary though?" She questioned, pointing at the penis drawn at the bottom of the canvas.

Felix raised his arms, palms upright, "What? That's my signature mark." He told his sister as he walked over to the sink, "Cuppa?"

Em launched herself onto the sofa, kicking off her shoes, and lay down with her legs crossed, "Yes please." She said with a loud sigh.

Suddenly she remembered why she was at her foster brother's and jerked her arms out to side in a stretch, "Oh, by the way, I told Kira we'd both pick her up from school sometime this week. That okay?" She asked, tilting her head up so she could see Felix above the couch.

"Yeah, course." He replied bringing the tea over to her and lifting up her legs so he could sit under them. "She okay?"

"Yeah," Em replied, taking a sip of her tea, burning the roof of her mouth and setting it on the table across from her. "She's been asking after Sarah though."

Felix swallowed a gulp of tea, not knowing how to reply but finally settled with, "Hmm."

Em' head whirled towards his, and she eyed him suspiciously, "What? What do you know?"

"What? Nothing!" Felix claimed, taking another gulp of his tea.

"Nope, come on. Tell me!" She began poking him with her feet, making him laugh.

"Hey, careful. I've got hot tea!" He exclaimed through his laughter and set the drink down on the table. "Right then!" He picked up a cushion and started hitting Em with it, who picked up the cushion behind her back and reciprocated his movements, giggling along with him.

Sarah climbs the stairs slowly, sighing as she hooks the huge files containing all the information she needed to show Felix about her twin, Beth Childs.

She halts outside the door of Felix's apartment when she hears an outburst of giggles and smiles slightly to herself when she realises she's about to reunite with her little sister.

But Sarah panics a little as she remembers how guilty she was for leaving her sister ten months ago. She knew that Emma would have to comfort Kira and she would make it her job to mother the little girl in the absence of Sarah too. Emma had always been with Sarah, for as long as they could remember, even before they got placed with Mrs S all those years ago, so Sarah knew how lost Em would have been when, the only thing that had been consistently there for her entire life, up and left without so much as a goodbye.

Sarah inhaled deeply and yanked open the door, smiling at the scene in front of her.

Em and Felix were sprawled out on the tiny couch, playfully beating each other with the cushions and laughing hysterically, just like the three siblings had done as children when they thought Mrs S was sleeping.

Neither of Sarah's siblings had noticed her entrance amongst the shouts and laughter so Sarah shut the door behind her and dropped her bag and the files by the door.

"Oi oi. Careful Em, you'll mess up Fe's hair." She joked, hands crossed in front of her chest.

Both of them froze, Felix's head popped out from the side, "Look who decided to show up," He smiled and then looked back at his younger sister to watch her drop the cushion and slowly turn to the door, immediately noticing the familiar voice.

Emma's eyes locked with Sarah's who desperately tried to read her awestruck face to see if her sister was angry or pleased with her arrival.

"Holy shite," Emma breathed, "Sarah!" She called as she jumped up from her seating position and charged to the door, flinging herself into the arms of her older sister.

Sarah smiled into her little sister's hair and eagerly returned the embrace, "Hey Em," She whispered and kissed the temple of her head a few times.

When Emma pulled away, hands still holding onto Sarah's, she turned to Felix, "You knew, didn't you?" She said, accusingly, raising her eyebrows at her brother.

Felix's arms raised in surrender, "I didn't want to ruin _this_ ," He said walking over to both girls and kissing each on the head.

Suddenly, Em punched Sarah's arm causing her to yell out, "Oi!"

"That's for leaving us for almost a year, you stupid twat!" Em shouted at her sister, causing Sarah to smile.

"Well Em, it's good to see you haven't changed; still charming as ever." Sarah smirked, wrapping her arm roughly around Emma's neck and dragging her to the kitchen.

Felix followed, trying to fix his hair from his earlier brawl, "Cuppa?", Sarah nods.

He spots the files by the door, and quickly sweeps them up, "Oh, are these-," He began but was quickly interrupted by Sarah and her death glare.

"Nothing important." She covered up quickly and turned her attention back to her sister, "How are you, Em?"

"Fine." Em was quick to reply not wanting to elaborate and knowing her sister wouldn't pry.

"How's Kira?" Sarah asked, playing with a curl in Emma's hair.

Em batted her sister's hand away, like she always did, "Good." She replied staring at her nails, assessing which to bite first, "She got star student last week."

"Got to take home the class bear too," Felix interjected, causing Sarah to smile at how proud her brother and sister were of their niece.

"But, really. How is she?" She turned back to Em, waiting for her reply.

Em walked to the table to pick up her now cool tea, "She misses you, Sarah. What do you expect? She keeps asking when you're coming home." Walking back to the counter to stand opposite her now frowning sister, Emma sips at her tea, "I mean, you _missed_ her _birthday_." She reminds Sarah as she looks into her tea.

"Em," Felix warns his younger sister.

"No, no. She's right." Sarah says, putting her head into her hands. "And Mrs S? How mad is she?" Em purses her lips and looks guiltily at Sarah.

"Oh God," Sarah moans, through gritted teeth.

Felix walks over to Sarah and puts his arm around her shoulder, "But you know, I think Em is taking the fall of S' anger at the moment."

"Oi," Em playfully hits Felix.

"Yeah, why aren't you at school?" Sarah asks the teenager, suddenly aware that it was a weekday.

Em took another sip and smiled mischievously, "Got suspended."

"Again?" Felix asked, half impressed.

Emma nodded as Sarah eyed her suspiciously, "What'd you do?"

Emma sighed, and rifled through some magazine pages sitting on the counter, "Gave a bitch a black eye." She smiled at her siblings' expressions, a mixture of amusement and confusion. "She deserved it." Em justified.

Felix and Sarah nodded approvingly before Emma spoke up again, "Why you back, Sarah?"

"Ouch," Sarah joked but stopped smiling when she looked at her siblings serious expressions.

"You know what she means," Felix told Sarah knowingly, cocking his head towards Emma, gesturing for Sarah to tell her about the train incident.

Sarah understood what Felix wanted her to do but she looked down at her hands and told Emma part of the truth, "Kira."

Emma left Felix's around half two, having spent the day with both her siblings, so she could be home before Kira's school let out.

As she left, Sarah had promised that they'd see each other tomorrow, and whilst Em appreciated her sister's attempts, she took that promise with a pinch of salt.

Emma walked downtown to get home, listening to her music and trying to bury as much of herself as possible in her coat, away from the icy winter weather of Toronto.

The next thing she knew her earphones were ripped out of her ears and she spun round ready to hit someone, "Oi!" She shouted at a thirty-something, dark-skinned, rough looking man, "Watch it!"

"Jesus, you look just like Sarah," He claimed, taken aback.

"Who the bloody hell are you?" Emma asked, warily.

"Name's Vic. You must be her sister..er, Emma right?" His voice was higher than she expected it to be but then he remembered this was the ex-boyfriend who liked to hit her sister.

"Vic the Dick," She mumbled under her breath, remembering the nickname her siblings had given him.

"What's that now?" Vic asked, looking around and behind Em, "She with you? Sarah?"

"I thought she was with you. I haven't seen her in ten months." Emma lied.

Vic scoffed, "Right, yeah. That's perfect, just perfect. Is Felix around?"

"Why do you want to know?"

Vic stepped forward, pulling on Em coat, an inch away from her face, "Listen, kid. It's very important that I find Sarah, okay. She took something from me and I need it back, so tell me where she is!" He spat out.

Em knee connected with his groin, forcefully and he screamed out in pain, falling to the floor, "You touch me again, arsehole, and I'll _cut off_ something very important, that you won't be able to get back!" She stood over him, smiling as he writhed in pain.

"You bitch!" She heard him yell after her but she was already gone, running with her earphones back in and the music blasting.

When she was a couple of blocks away, she turned into alley and leaning against the wall, panting, she whipped out her phone and dialled as fast as she could.

"Oi, what's up you forget something?" Fe's voice answered.

"Fe! Is Sarah still there?" Emma managed to get out between breaths.

"Em, slow down. Hang on," Felix sounded worried as he passed the phone over to Sarah's beckoning hands.

"Em, what's going on?" She asked urgently.

"I just met Vic the Dick, and he's probably on his way to Felix's now. He's looking for you, Sarah. What did you do?"

"Ah shit, what did he say to you? Did he hurt you?" Sarah was starting to sound angry now, she didn't know what she'd do to Vic if he'd hurt Em.

"Nah, I sort of hurt him though. He said you took something from him, so I think he's heading over there now." Em rushed to tell her sister, certain that Sarah had taken drugs to sell.

"Alright, okay. Thanks Em. I'm leaving now." The phone beeped as Sarah hung up and Em peeked out of the alleyway to make sure she hadn't been followed before rushing home.

Sarah had raced out of Felix's building and straight into Beth's jaguar, scanning the roads leading away from the grungy area until she knew she was safe from Vic's prying eyes.

She pulled up outside Beth's apartment and cautiously entered the place, making sure no suspicious neighbours could see her.

Dumping the files back onto the kitchen table, she hit play on the TV and continued watching the home videos of Beth and her boyfriend, Paul. Before she left for Fe's she had called Beth's bank and had set up a meeting for tomorrow to take out the money from Beth's account.

She knew she'd have to look, act and dress exactly like Beth to get away with this scam so she had perfected Beth's signature and dyed her hair, picking out the braids Sarah had adorned for months and coloured over the blonde strands. Now all she needed to do was talk like Beth, which is how she came to watching the home videos.

"What's up hot stuff?" Paul's voice rang from the TV, "You ready to push your body to the limit?" He asks Beth who runs up to the camera, panting.

"You're damn right."

Sarah listens intently, replaying the dialogue over and over again, trying to mimic Beth's pitch and accent. She rolls her eyes when she can't get it just right and switches the channel over so she's watching the news.

"I'm standing outside Huxley Station right now, which you can see is emptying out. Authorities have cleared out the station after an unidentified woman fell onto the tracks and was killed," Sarah watched the news reporter, absorbedly and smiled to herself. "Our witnesses aren't sure how the woman came to be on the tracks, or whether foul play was involved. Police have not revealed anymore details…" But by the time the news segment was over, Sarah had already rushed to her phone and called her brother.

"Fe," She said eagerly when he had picked up, "I've an idea."


	2. Welcome Home, Stranger

_Welcome back! Here's some angst and a little background into Emma and Sarah's beginnings..._

 _Don't forget to review!_

* * *

Mrs S had asked Emma to pick up Kira from school so there she was, waiting outside the little girls classroom, listening to her music, being eyed up by soccer moms.

Emma had picked up her niece many times and still got the judgemental glares from the mothers and teachers who assumed she was a teen mom. Em stood in her leather jacket, shorts with ripped tights and boots, sporting an almost identical outfit as her sister's usual attire, her curly waves sat tangled upon her shoulders, full of random thin plaits and her face was smothered in dark eye makeup. She was a punk, just like the rest of her family, although this didn't suit the square parents picking up their darling children.

Children filed out of their classes, the teachers making sure that each of them were accounted for by their parents. The tiniest kid steps out of the class. Kira. A wide grin spreading across her face when she spots her teenage aunt in the crows of dull colours.

Em waves to the girl as she walks closer to the building and pulls out her earphones. The teacher spots her, frowns and turns to Kira, warily.

"No, she's my aunt," Em hears Kira informs her teacher, knowingly, as she walks up to the girl.

"Hey, monkey," She says as Kira flings herself into her aunt's arms despite the teacher's worried glare.

Kira looks behind Em from her place in her arms, "Where's Uncle Felix?" She asked innocently.

"Well, I went to see him today, and he'll pick you up the day after tomorrow, okay?"

Kira smiles and nods, eagerly and Em spins around walking through the sea of scowls, swinging the little girl's arm, exaggeratedly, causing her to laugh and showing the other women that this kid , with the irresponsible guardian, was the happiest.

"We're back," Em yelled through the house as Kira opened the door, racing towards the kitchen where S sat with a pot of tea and pen and papers.

"Hello, love," S stroking Kira's long curls as she headed for her paints.

Em had already ran upstairs relieving her coat and bags in her room and hopped back downstairs, smiling at her foster mother as she poured herself a drink from the fridge.

"Oh, you seem cheery, love. Read a good book at the library?" S asks doubtfully as she pries the coat off of Kira's back.

"Hmm? Oh yeah, and yes!" Em laughed, winking at her foster mother. "I spent the day at Fe's."

"Aha! Is that right? And what is that boy up to at the moment?"

Em rolled her eyes. S was always insulting towards her foster children but she loved them all and would kill for them, despite what it might seem. "Painting, mostly…" Emma's voice lingered, deceptively as she headed for the stairs.

"Hey, wait, come back here. What's your useless brother up to now?" S called eagerly after Emma.

Emma's eyes flickered towards Kira in the corner of the room, painting, before returning them back to Mrs S, "I'll tell you later, yeah?"

S followed the teenager's eyes towards Kira before nodding at her youngest foster daughter.

Unfortunately, her suspension was over and so Em woke up at half seven and got ready for school. She decided to climb out the window, instead of using the door, as she knew that Mrs S would trap her until she got the truth out of her foster daughter of whom hadn't yet told her the secret she was containing from last night, and sadly, Em couldn't keep a secret for very long.

Also, she wasn't sure if she should tell S that Sarah was back. Mrs S' reaction would be of frustration and she would surely march straight over to Fe's loft, demanding to see her estranged, eldest foster child. Em would have to check with her siblings because she could tell there was something they were hiding from her, that Sarah's return was more than just getting Kira back, and her life sorted out. That definitely was not Sarah.

Landing on the hard cement ground from the pipes, Em adjusted her bag over her shoulder and peered through the window of the hallway, running as she saw Mrs S' head whip past, blissfully unaware of the teenager who just broke out of her house.

The day lasted as usual, although she received a sarcastic welcome back from her peers, though she just smirked at the black eyed girl in the corner of the class, who was not-so-subtly pretending that she hadn't seen Emma enter the class. Em admired her marking on the girls face and greeted the teacher, condescendingly, "Hello Peter,"

The balding man, wearing thick rimmed glasses and sporting a brown and purple chequered sweater vest, rolled his eyes, "It's Mr Calhoun to you, Emma. Welcome back, it's lovely to see you." He offered, cynically.

Lunch came, and went too quickly. Em spent the hour behind the art department squinting, puffing away at her carelessly rolled spliffs and squinting at the preppy kids she was forced to be surrounded by. Unlike her other siblings, Emma was rather talented academically, though she refused to believe it to fit with her punk image, and so when her middle school teacher suggested to Mrs S that she send her to the high achieving high school in the upper side of city, S was beside herself with relief that Emma might not turn out to be as rebellious and difficult as Sarah or Felix.

Emma, much to her chagrin, was sent to the school however, the students quickly discovered that she wasn't one of them. A scrappy foster kid with a hostile wardrobe and a troubled background was all they saw, forcing Em to precede their expectations and slide easily into the familiar role she had witnessed, growing up with her uneasy elder sister. In that way, school was easy for Em. She ignored the rules and emitted a 'couldn't care less' attitude, and for the most part, she really couldn't. But, when lunchtime came, it would be nice not to spend them on her own every damn day.

"Hey Emma, "A timid voice pulled her from her thoughts.

This kid didn't count as someone she would willingly spend time with.

She hesitated before acknowledging the sheepish boy's existence, focusing instead on rolling another joint, "Bugger off, Henry." She finally sighed, still focused on the task in hand.

"Uh, yeah, sure," The weedy kid, who was dressed as if his mother still shopped for him, started to turn away, "I just wanted to give you… the research I've done so far for, for our science project," He stuttered whilst reaching into his backpack and retrieving the necessary documents.

Em ran her hand through her hand, and quickly turned to him, slipping the joint between her lips and lighting up, "Listen, Henry. I'm afraid I can't participate in that project. Foster kid problEm at home, you know," Em lived pulling the 'foster kid' card. She leaned towards him winking, "Do you think you could help me out by taking the reins on this one?" She asked flirtatiously, already distracted by the something else.

Henry laughed, bashful, and returned the carefully filed pages into his bag, "Oh, yeah. Sure. Of course,"

Em smiled slightly at his awkwardness and the power she somehow had over him, in disbelief, "Bye, Henry." She quickly said, between drags, before the boy could strike up a conversation.

Henry understood his cue to leave and followed it, leaving Em to shake her head, rolling her eyes, at his odd behaviour.

The bell rang suddenly and Em could almost growl at it but at least it meant the day was closer to finishing. She stood up to walk away before a jock's arm forcefully collided with her shoulder, causing Em to stagger forwards and adjust her balance before she could fall.

"'Sup Skank," the boy laughed, menacingly, walking backwards so he could watch the exasperation spread across Em face.

"Fuck off," She yelled toward his direction in her thick London accent before her phone beeped and she fished it out of her pocket.

 _You back in the shithole today?_ – _Sarah_

Em smiled at the message, still in awe that Sarah was back, before texting her back quickly, confirming the dreadful news.

Finally, the last bell of the day rang and Em was the first out of the room, ignoring the blatant yelling of her teacher ordering her to come back.

She trailed out of the building, checking to see if Sarah had replied to her text. When she spotted no new messages, Em absentmindedly began her journey home, walking straight past the neatly dressed brunette.

"Oi," Sarah called out to her younger sister with false offense laced in her voice from not being recognised.

Em spun around excitedly at the familiar voice and raised her eyebrows questioningly, "What the bloody hell are you wearing?" She laughed, noticing the new hairstyle and fancy clothes she thought she'd never see on her sister.

Sarah rolled her eyes wrapping her arm around Em' shoulders and pulling her along, "Shut up. I've got to impress S somehow, yeah?" She stated.

The sisters sat in the booth of the diner, sipping at their drinks, before Sarah scrunched up her nose in distaste and nodded towards Em, "You reek of pot, you know?"

Em laughed into her drink, and then shrugged, "Whatever, I've got to get through the day with those stuck up kids somehow, yeah? Anyways, aren't you going to tell me about your ten months full of adventures?" She challenged, changing the subject, knowing Sarah wouldn't answer her.

Sarah proved her right by shifting uncomfortably in her seat and averted her gaze through the window, "Just a whole lot of shite."

Em rolled her eyes at the minimal answer, and slammed her hands onto the table, gaining Sarah's attention again, "Okay, well, you going to tell me why you really look like that?" She grinned again at the out of character outfit Sarah donned.

Sarah leaned over the table and whispered, "One of my new scams," She winked.

Disappointed with this news, Em shifted slightly in her seat, "Right, sure. Of course, you're back to being the model mother for Kira. How d'you suppose S will let you have Kira if you've come back here after almost a year, straight back to being a con artist?" Em scoffed, disapprovingly.

Sarah, sat back with a thud, "Give it a rest, Em. I'm trying to fix this."

"Bloody hell, Sarah. Siobhan is serious this time. She's not going to give you Kira back let alone let you see her, for a while."

"Well, I'm her mum, she's gonna have to." Sarah hissed, slamming her fist on the table causing a few pairs of eyes to turn towards their table.

"For fuck sake, Sarah! You left Kira with Mrs S overnight, and you didn't come back for ten months!" She watched the hurt fill Sarah's eyes as they turned glassy and Em sat back slowly, feeling slightly guilty as she waited for Sarah's reply.

Emma grabbed her bag and slid out of the booth stopping only to lean closer to address her sister, "Please, come back. _I_ shouldn't be mothering her."

Sarah let one tear fall before quickly swiping the rest away and lowering her head into her hands. She knew that it would take a while to fix things with Em. Despite the eleven years difference between the sisters, they had always been inseparable and frequently, the dynamic fell more into a mother-daughter role when Em was growing up.

She was used to Sarah's regular excursions of which nobody would hear from her for a few weeks. But once Sarah had returned from one pregnant, they had become less regular and even after Kira was born, Sarah would go for less days at a time.

So it was only normal that Em would react to this particular reappearance differently. But, this time, Sarah wasn't sure how to make it right with her. One of the most important people in her life was starting to see Sarah's real side, and she couldn't fix it.

Sarah rapidly climbed out of the booth, pounding her feet out of the diner, and headed toward Beth's apartment.

As Emma's high school was in the upper district, it wasn't too far from Beth's townhouse, which meant that it didn't take Sarah long to walk back.

As she rounded the corner to the street, she noticed a parked black car, flashing its lights. She wondered if they were being flashed at her, but before she could think about why they'd want her attention, a silver car pulled up suddenly with a single siren blaring, blocking her view as the black car pulled away.

The driver's door of the silver car, swung open violently as a dark skinned man raced around the front of the car, towards Sarah and grabbed her by the arm, pulling her towards the car.

"What the hell are you doing?" He huffed out as Sarah struggled to break free from his hold.

"Shit," Sarah muttered under her breath. "What's the charge?"

"Not today Beth," He sighed gently pushing her into the car/

They arrived at the police station five minutes later, Sarah having discovered that her kidnapper was Beth's partner, Art. Sarah couldn't function properly; her surroundings were all blurred and time seemed to have slowed down as cops smiled and nodded solemnly at her.

Art left her to enter a board room, when an older man with greying hair addressed her, "Detective,"

Sarah's eyes immediately widened when she realised that he was talking to her.

"Just stick with the statement and you'll do fine," He tried to reassure her, pathetically.

Sarah realised, as she looked into the room Beth's partner had just sat down in, that she, as Beth, was supposed to address a whole room of cops for something she had no idea had happened.

With her hand running through her hair in panic, she took a deep breath, "Uh, I got to use the washroom, Lieutenant,"

The older man sighed, "Alright, get yourself sorted," He began, making Sarah stop when he informed her she was going the wrong way and giving her a suspicious look.

Sarah half ran in the direction of the bathroom, almost bumping into a female cop when she burst into the room, only checking that all the stalls were empty when she thought she was alone. Ripping her phone out of her pocket she dialled Fe's number, only for it to head straight to voicemail, "Felix, Beth is a cop. I'm a cop! Felix, abort!" She instructed into the recording, frustrated and emphasising every word firmly.

Tossing the phone by the sink, she leant onto the counter top, taking a worried breath. Running her hands through her hair she stared at herself as if trying to pry an answer to the situation out of her reflection before her eyes fell on the soap dispenser.

Quickly, she twisted off the dispenser from its secure place on the wall, and held the pot up to her nose, smelling it before hesitantly bringing it up to her lips. She took a small sip, and pulled away rapidly as she started to gag.

 _Come on, Sarah. You've swallowed worse than this._ Without thinking about it anymore she hurriedly gulped down the entirety of the soap.

A few minutes later, she was sitting at a table, surrounded by cops and lawyers with a camera pointed at her face. Somebody asked her to state her full name and at that point she was wondering when the substance would take effect, when all of a sudden she sprung out of her seat and leant over the table, throwing up.

Throwing his bag onto the couch, Felix went straight to his collection of drinks and poured himself one. He definitely needed it after seeing Beth's cut and bloody, train wreck corpse. Well, at least he got a date out of it with the cute, goofy morgue attendant, Colin.

Felix's phone rang, "Hey Sarah!" He answered, relieved that she was okay.

"Did you get my message?" She replied quickly.

"Yeah, I did. But, shit, Sarah, I had already identified her body as you. There was nothing I could do!" He tried to explain.

"It's fine, don't worry about it. I sorted it out. They wanted me to testify to something Beth had done. Something about shooting a civilian? I don't know but, I got out of it."

"Shite. How?"

"By sputtering my guts out on the table," Felix laughed at this as Sarah continued, "Yeah, I didn't have to do any statements after that, but they sent me to Beth's therapist. Turns out she'd been knocking back a ton of different drugs. No wonder she jumped in front of a train." Sarah's voice sounded tired.

"Where are you now?" Felix asked, wondering if she had made it back to Beth's okay.

"I'm at her apartment, trying to find out more about her and this bloody case." Sarah paused and sighed, "Have you heard from Em today?"

Felix sipped at his drink, kicking his shoes off and falling onto his bed, "No, but I'm seeing her tomorrow. Why?"

Felix could imagine Sarah rubbing her eyes, groggily as she spoke into the phone, "I picked her up from school and we got into a fight. She's changed, Fe. I don't know how to fix it with her now. It was easier before."

Fe exhaled quietly. Whilst growing up with two sisters had its perks, they were always fighting about stuff he couldn't really get involved with and he had always felt left out. Despite them all growing up together, everyone was pretty sure that Emma and Sarah were biological sisters; they looked very similar and were found together when Sarah was 12 and Em only a year old, but Sarah couldn't remember anything that had happened so they always suspected that they're parents had been abusive and Sarah's subconscious mind had repressed the memories.

Still, Felix felt that he was the odd one out. The one with no real biological connections, which he knew was silly because they all loved each other as real siblings. But he never liked getting caught up in his sisters arguments which usually turned into a fist fight and was resolved within a few minutes. However, ever since Em had become a teenager and Sarah had left more and more, it always took a day or two for things to get back to normal with them when Sarah returned; she realised that Em wouldn't forgive her as easily than when she was younger.

But something about this time made Felix think that it would take more than a few days for Em to forgive Sarah. This time, Sarah had left for almost a year and nobody really knew if she was coming back.

"I know, but, you know you just need to give her some time. You were gone for a long time, Sarah." He reminded her without trying to sound judgemental, "Just focus on Mrs S and getting Kira back. Em will be happy when Kira has you back."

"Yeah, you're probably right. Anyways, just got into Beth's detective files so I'll talk to you tomorrow, yeah?" Sarah said, sounding distant to Felix.

"Alright, see you." Felix said, hanging up and downing the rest of his liquor.

After seeing the therapist, Sarah had gone straight back to Beth's apartment and taken a nap. She'd called Felix afterwards and then had a shower.

Stepping out of the bathroom, she ran the towel through her long hair and pulled her 'London Calling' band t-shirt on along with some underwear.

She decided to start packing as she'd already scammed Beth's bank account and had the $75 K so she threw a couple of Beth's clothes into her bag alongside her own.

Running her hand along the man's clothes she began pulling out a baggy shirt she was sure Beth's boyfriend wouldn't mind. But as she pulled it off the hanger, the front door shut and she heard footsteps walking towards the room she was in, "Shit."

"Beth. Beth?" A low voice questioned from out of her sight.

The source of the voice walked into the room. Paul, Sarah assumed. He was well built, had light, short hair and was wearing a suit, "Hey." He said after Sarah had stopped frantically moving around the closet and turned to face him.

"Hey." She answered in Beth's accent.

Paul's eyes moved down to the shirt Sarah was wearing and he smirked, "The Clash?" He scoffed.

Sarah looked down at her top pulling her wet hair behind her shoulder, "Oh yeah. Uh, London Calling…The Clash Rock." She smiled.

"Yeah, but you don't," He said almost condescendingly as he began to move closer to her. "You going somewhere?" He tilted his head towards the back she had been filling and so she began to start emptying it.

"Uh, uh…no, it's just gym stuff." She tried to say coolly. "Weren't you coming back on the weekend?"

He moved closer, "Well, I wanted to be here." He said as I it was obvious, "So? How'd it go?" Sarah must have looked confused because he sighed and elaborated, "How was the hearing?"

Sarah looked down at her bag, "Oh. Ah, I couldn't do it, I couldn't do it." She began walking out of the room, trying to get away from him only to roll her eyes when he followed her into the kitchen.

"You skipped it?" She heard him question her.

"Um, no. I got sick to my stomach. Basically puked on 'em." She told him, walking backwards so she was facing Paul.

"Are you serious?" He frowned, getting closer.

"Yeah. Yeah," She smiled, "Don't worry, I'm okay." Her hand rested on the counter.

Her coolness obviously wasn't convincing because he raised his arms and spoke louder, "Beth. What's happened?"

Sarah exhaled, putting her hands on her hips and smiling as she told him the truth, "A lot."

"Yeah, I know but you're…"

Sarah waited for him to continue but instead opened up one of the cupboards as if to show him that she was looking for a wine glass, only to open an empty cupboard, "I'm what?"

He stepped closer now, eying her suspiciously, "What'd you do to your hair?"

"Uh…nothing. I got it cut."

"It looks longer." He reached up to touch it.

"It's just wet." She said, ducking away from his reach and spreading her fingers through the long, wet locks.

He tried reaching for it again as he moved even closer, shaking his head, "Something's different."

Sarah knew the only way to shut him up and so she inwardly sighed before rapidly reaching up to make their lips meet in a quick, passionate kiss. Pushing him against the counter, she felt her way down to his belt buckle, trying to take it off whilst deepening the kiss as Paul ripped off his jacket.

He pulled down his pants once Sarah had successfully tugged off his belt and Paul lifted her up, mumbling against her lips, "Bedroom," He tried to instruct Sarah as he carried her in the direction but banged into the table, dropping her onto her feet.

"Right here," She whispered, pulling off her underwear, seductively, before going back in to kiss him, wrapping her arms around his neck as he fumbled with his shirt buttons.

Paul lifted her against him and onto the table, in an almost seated position until Sarah pushed him onto his back with a sigh and straddled him, whilst pulling off her shirt to reveal her naked torso.

Paul looked down towards where their ends met as she climbed on top of him and placed his hands on her waist, securely, rocking up and down, both of them panting.


	3. A Rebel's Rebellion

"How was your first day back at school?" S asked as she washed the dishes from dinner.

Kira was sitting on Em lap as she drew, her crayons spread out like a rainbow. Em was sat back in the chair, playing with the little girl's long curls, which seemed to run in the family. "Meh, it was the same as it always is, S. An absolute joy!" She answered sarcastically, faking any kind of enthusiasm.

S scoffed, turning halfway to face the duo, "You didn't do anything stupid, though. Something you might want to tell me about? Or were you just so excited to get to school this morning, you jumped out of the window as a shortcut?" Mrs S tried to hint.

Em had been waiting for this all day. She knew she hadn't mentioned something last night about her day with Felix and Sarah. After her heated argument with Sarah at the diner, she had stormed out and forgotten to ask if Mrs S was to know Sarah was back. Although, she didn't see any harm in telling S. If anything, it would give her more time to calm down before they reunited.

Em ignored the latter question, sighing loudly, "No, nothing happened. I kept my head down, did my work and left as soon as the bell rang."

Kira squirmed in her lap and turned to face Em, a confused look on her face, "Don't you like school Auntie Em?"

"Afraid not, monkey." She answered, "It's not as fun when you're my age."

S spun round, wiping her hands on a tea cloth and walked towards the table the girls were sitting at, "But you still have to go." She said informatively, picking Kira up from Em' lap and placing her on the floor, "Go get into your PJ's and brush your teeth, then aunty Em will take you up for a story, okay, love?"

Kira nodded and ran off, bouncing up the stairs.

Siobhan turned to Em and sat down on the chair next to her, hitting her gently, "Tell me. Something's happened. What is it?" She asked seriously.

Em let out a loud, exasperated sigh, turning her head towards the stairs to check Kira had actually gone up stairs, before turning to her foster mother, "Sarah's back."

S' eyes widened immediately, and she leant back in her chair, matching Em' posture, "Bloody hell," She sighed, "When?"

Em was surprised that she didn't sound angry, just slightly fed up. "Erm, day before yesterday, I think. She said she rang you?"

Siobhan reached her hand up to her face rubbing her eyes, slowly, "Yes. But I didn't think she was actually coming back. She was asking after Kira." She whispered. "Did Felix tell you?"

Emma leant her elbow against the table, resting her chin in her palm, "Well, no. Actually…she was there, at Fe's when I went to see him. And then I met her after school today."

"How did she look?" Em could hear the worried, motherly-tone that S refused to show in her pissed off expression.

"She looked fine. She was dressed in some fancy clothes today, actually." Em replied, remembering how strange her sister had looked.

Mrs S almost leapt from her chair and tucked it into the table aggressively, "Another scam, no doubt," She yelled, "That bloody girl!"

"Ready!" Kira shouted from the top off the stairs, sprinting down them and causing both S and Emma to jump, giving each other a 'we'll talk about this later look'.

"Brilliant. Well done, love. Goodnight." Mrs S' tone changing instantly to address the young girl. She bent down to kiss Kira's forehead and gave her a little hug.

"Night, Mrs S." Kira replied, hugging back her grandmother-figure.

Em gathered up Kira's drawing, sighing when she spotted the long, dark hair and brown eyes, captioned 'Mummy', "Don't forget this, monkey." She handed her niece the paper before sweeping her up and squeezing her tightly as she carried her upstairs.

Em tucked in the little girl after reading her a story but stopped when she noticed Kira was still holding the drawing of her mother.

"You can't sleep with that, monkey." She said whilst prying it from Kira's hands.

"Okay." She frowned, "But just put it on the table. I want her to protect me from the monsters."

Em raised her eyebrow dubiously, "Monsters? Kira, there are no monsters here." She said whilst checking under the bed. "See. Anyway, my room's right next door. So you can come get me if you're scared." She said, watching Kira's eyes look over at a picture of her and Sarah from two years ago.

"You look like mummy." Kira stated, looking back at her aunt.

"Of course, we're sisters, silly! Now stop stalling and go to sleep, yeah?" She smiled and leant in to kiss the little girl's cheek.

Kira's arms wrapped tightly around Emma's shoulders, keeping her against Kira's cheek as the little girl whispered, "One more story?"

Em laughed at the girl's attempt to avoid sleep for as long as possible but pulled away, "No, come on, Kira. Go to sleep. Remember Uncle Felix and I are both picking you up from school tomorrow, yeah?"

Kira beamed broadly and answered excitedly, "Okay. Goodnight."

"Night, monkey." Em said from the door as she switched off the light and pulled the door behind her, leaving a small gap so it wasn't completely closed.

"Did she brush her teeth?" Mrs S asked Emma when she was back downstairs.

Emma rubbed her eyes, tiredly and nodded, "Yeah." She landed on the couch with a thud, spreading her body out so her feet sat upon Siobhan's lap. S turned her body to face her foster daughter and started to massage her ankles.

"She's back for Kira, isn't she?" Siobhan broke the soft silence.

"Of course she is." Emma replied.

Siobhan sighed, wearily, far too used to the trouble her eldest foster child brought home with her. "Is she staying at Felix's? What's she doing now?"

Em flung her arms out, palms up, "Please. Can we not talk about Sarah?" Noticing Siobhan's surprised expression, Em explained, "We got in a fight."

Sarah climbed out of the car and walked over to the tree her former foster mother stood under, staring through a pair of binoculars at the lake in front of them.

"I've seen your elaborate disguises before, but, how do you do this? How do you fake your own demise beneath a tree?" S doesn't sound surprised as she continues staring at the birds ahead.

"What? How do you know?" Sarah asks defensively.

"Vic called me, letting me know where and when the memorial was and so I called Felix."

Sarah shuffled in her spot, shaking her head at her brother's attempt at a memorial service, "Does Kira know?"

"Neither of them do. And it's going to stay that way." She gave Sarah a warning look, "Kira is still blissfully unaware that your back and Em is too excited with your return."

"Doubt that," Sarah scoffs, thinking back to her argument with Em.

"Oh, Sarah. How is it that you still do this?"

"Wouldn't you rather know why?" Sarah asked not sure what S was referring to.

"I don't care to know why."

"Because, I saw I way to dump Vic and get out of that life. And get away with Kira." She added firmly.

S let out a short smirk, before returning to the binoculars, "Take her on the run with you. Brilliant." She said sarcastically and gestured to Beth's car, "New clothes and a Jaguar do not a mother make. Via the point," She handed the binoculars to Sarah.

Sarah sighed but took them and stared through at the birds ahead. "Uh, I don't remember. Buffleheads?"

"Barrows Goldeneye. Just passing through."

Sarah glanced back at S, hurt.

Siobhan noticed how her words must have sounded and gave in to her eldest child, as she always did. "I'll set up a visit, but the only way you will regain custody of Kira is to show me that you can be still."

Sarah knew that this was as much as she would get from S for now, but she was still angry and determined to see Kira today if she could.

Mrs S turned to walk away before Sarah grabbed her arm, firmly, "You're not her legal guardian. Mine either anymore." She stated through clenched teeth.

"You can visit. Any other approach and I will stop lying to social services for you." She challenged Sarah.

"You wouldn't do that to Kira."

"No, I'd do it to you." And with that, S left. Leaving Sarah to wipe at her tears and watch the Barrows Goldeneye fly away.

Heading back to the car, wearily, Sarah climbed into the driver's seat and just sat for a few moments until she heard one of Beth's phones ring.

Rummaging through her bag, she found the source of the noise and pulled out the bright pink phone, noting the caller ID gave only a number.

She deliberated on whether or not to answer for a few seconds but was slightly curious as to whom this person was and why they wanted to speak to Beth so badly that they'd rang non-stop since Sarah had become Beth.

"Hello?" Sarah immediately adorning Beth's voice.

"Beth! Hey! Why haven't you been answering your calls?" A young, female voice asked quickly.

"Uh, battery died."

"Well? Do you still have it?" When there was no answer from Sarah, the anonymous voice elaborated, though in a rather exasperated tone, "The briefcase, Beth. It's still in your trunk, right?"

"Uh, yeah. Right, it's still here." Sarah stammered, turning her head towards the back of the car as if she could see through the material to the trunk.

"Great, so I'll be over in a couple of days. Guard it with your life."

"Alright." Sarah answered, still confused but climbed out of the car after hanging up with the anonymous caller.

There it was. A shiny, silver briefcase. Just like in the movies. Sarah pulled it towards her and attempted to pull open the locked clasps.

"Shite." She groans, tossing into the passenger seat behind her and reversing rapidly away from the lake.

It hadn't been a long day for Emma. It should have been, but it hadn't.

She had left for school as usual and even stayed in lessons until recess but that was definitely enough for the day.

She walked out of the school, unnoticed by any teachers, and headed out of the suburban area until she was back to her familiar surroundings of the grimy area of the city. Home.

With her hands tucked into her leather jacket and music blasting she walked down the damp alley, stopping only to find that the door was locked.

With a sigh, she let her bag fall down her arm as she knocked angrily on the door. "Open up, you silly tits!"

After a few moments, she heard a key turning and the door cracked open enough to reveal a slither of dark blue hair, "What's the password?" A gruff, post pubescent voice questioned.

"Fuck off, Liam." Em banged the door open, almost knocking Liam out in the process.

The room was basically a hotbox. Smoke was hanging on everything, Em could barely see the half a dozen young men perched in different positions around the small apartment.

"Shite. You guys start without me?" Em joked, coughing as she tried to bat away the mist. She threw her bag and jacket onto the floor and headed to the fridge where she collected two beers and spun around to find Jax.

"Hey baby," His voice rang out from the edge of the room and she walked towards him with a smile.

Jackson, or Jax as everyone called him, who was in his mid-twenties, much like the rest of the guys, sat on the windowsill tapping the ashes off his joint.

"Alright," Em greeted, handing him a beer as he grabbed her by the waist and pulled her up against his side.

"I missed you. Where you been?" He said drowsily, taking a sip from the bottle.

"Just family shit." She let out with a sigh, "And I got suspended so S decided I was house bound."

Jax scoffed, leaning in to whisper, "Like that would have stopped you." He nibbled her ear.

Pushing him away she smiled and took a sip, looking around at the room at all the red, bloodshot eyes, focused on the television screen which was the provider of their not-so-intense video game.

She turned back to Jax, whose lips had found her neck, and swiped the joint from his fingers, "I'd better catch up." She took a deep drag.

"What have you been up to, whilst I've been gone?" Em asked, exhaling and blowing excess smoke into Jax's face, flirtatiously.

Jax smiled, swinging his legs off the window and planting them either side of Em. He looped his fingers into the belt loops on her pants and pulled her in until their hips touched. "Fuck all with these douchebags." He said cocking his head towards the others in the room, "Other than that, you don't want to know."

Em cocked her eyebrow, dubiously, bringing the joint to her lips again, "Hmm." She looked at the time and turned back to Jax, "I can't stay for long."

"Well then, we better get started." He pressed his lips to Em, aggressively as they fumbled into the bedroom.

The smell of something burning woke Emma from her slumber. She reluctantly opened her eyes, recognising her surroundings.

With a quick look over her shoulder she noticed Jax sleeping soundly up against her as she removed his hand from across her waist and climbed out of his hold.

She reached for her bra and began dressing herself, slowly however as she had taken some kind of pill earlier of which was now wearing off and restricting her movement.

Creeping out of the room and holding onto the walls to keep her upright, Emma swayed into the front room to collect her bag and jacket.

Half of the guys were still playing on the Xbox whilst the other half too high to function. Emma watched Liam take some food out of the fridge, "Oi, Liam, what time is it?" Her voice raspy from sleep as she rubbed her eyes awake.

"Almost three." He answered and walked back over to the couch.

"Shit!" Emma suddenly woke up and pulled on her jacket, "I gotta go. Tell Jax, uh, bye."

Em tried to run as fast as she could but she was still slightly high and very disoriented as she ran through the streets to Felix's. She needed to wash herself and eat something before presenting herself to a seven year old.

Stumbling up the stairs of Fe's apartment building, she collapsed against the door and gave a pathetic knock, "Fe? Fe, open up."

Footsteps grew louder as Em ear was pressed against the door, of which she had no interest in moving away from until it started to move, "Woah, trippy." She mumbled to herself.

Felix took in his younger sister's form, catching her before she fell through the space where the door should be. "Bloody hell, Em. What did you take?" He asked, sounding a mix of amused and worried as he half carried her to the couch.

"Piss off. I'm fine." Em waved her hands around to emphasise how capable she was at walking, instead collapsing into the cushions.

"Yeah, you look fine," Felix muttered, sarcastically, bending down to her level and lightly slapping her cheeks as he tried to sober her up. "You're supposed to be at school, Em. Shite, where were you?"

Em winced at his anxiousness and pulled her hands out of his, "Nowhere. Fe, stop fussing. I'll be fine in a minute."

"You're not picking up Kira like this, Em. We have to be there in half an hour!" His tone serious.

"I'll be fine, Fe. It's nothing. Can you get me some water, I'm gonna go take a shower." She asked as he hesitantly left her to fetch the water.

Em heaved herself off the couch and trudged slowly towards the shower, pulling off her clothes in the process and leaving a trail of garments leading from the couch to the bathroom.

Felix shook his head, calmer now, and set the drink on the table as he picked up his sister's clothes and set them by her bag as Em showered. After noticing the bag, he opened it suspiciously, trying to look for some evidence as to where the teenager had been all day.

Reaching for her phone, he unlocked it and searched through her messages looking for anything auspicious. He found nothing titillating, only messages from himself and Sarah, and a couple of her friends from her old school. Sighing in defeat, he threw the phone back into the bag and walked back to his paint as he waited for her to finish.

"Sure you're okay?" Fe asked Em as they walked away from his apartment building.

Em rolled her eyes and sighed, exasperated, "I'm fine. Bloody hell, Fe, it's not the first time you've seen me high."

"Yeah, but you're never that….incapable. What did you take?" He asked, linking his arm with hers, a spring in his step.

"I don't know. I only meant to get baked, but I think Ja-," she stopped herself before announcing who she'd spent time with, "this guy, must have slipped me something." She told her brother nonchalantly.

Felix stopped suddenly and faced the teenager, "What?!" He almost yelled.

Em ignored him and carried on walking ahead, "Oh, give it a rest, Fe. I can handle myself, yeah?"

"Not when you can't function, Em! Jesus Christ! Do you remember anything that happened afterwards? Who were you with?!" He questioned, running to catch up with her and tried to pull her to a halt.

Em shrugged him off, "Felix! Leave it, yeah? It happens all the time. Let's just go get Kira."

Felix gave in, hanging his arm over his sister's shoulders, keeping a tight hold on her, "Christ, you're just like Sarah, it's scary."

Suddenly, Em swung her arm out, pushing Felix away from her and stood firmly, "Stop! Alright, just stop! I'm fed up of everyone comparing me to Sarah! We're not the same person, yeah!"

Fe stood, jaw open, hand resting flat on his chest in surprise, and hurt written in his eyes.

Emma sighed, lifting her hands up to rub her face, "Sorry, Fe," She muttered. "She's back and I don't know how to feel. But I hate that we're not talking, I miss Sarah but I don't want her to know." She admitted and leant into Felix's side, wrapping her arms around his back.

He stood, shocked firstly at the physical contact his sister was showing which she usually never initiated unless it was with Kira. Nevertheless, Fe leant into the embrace, rubbing his baby sister's back, "I'm sorry. It will be okay soon, you'll see. You know that Sarah has always run away, it's just how she deals with everything. You of all people should know exactly what she goes through." He heard a sniffle from his chest and tightened his hold on the girl, planting a kiss into her hair. "We all deal with our messed up shit differently and that's at least one big difference between the two of you; _you_ don't run."

After a few moments, Em lifted her tear-stained face and forced a smile at Fe as he wiped her cheeks, "Sorry," Her voice cracked.

"Don't be a silly tit," He smirked, "Let's go pick up monkey and then grab a cuppa at S', yeah?"


	4. Friendliest of Faces

_Thanks for all the follows and reviews! Wow! I started writing this story a few years ago and only just grew the tits to publish it so really awesome that you guys are liking it - definitely giving me more motivation to continue it._

 _Here's the next chapter..._

* * *

If Emma thought it was bad enough that she, the punk teenage nightmare, was the one to pick up her seven year old niece, the reaction of the mothers when she brought along her very, obviously gay brother, was priceless.

"Oh, hello. Would you like to take a picture? Didn't think so." Fe made her laugh with his condescending comments, consequently scaring off the women with the uncomfortable interaction.

"Uncle Felix!" Kira's shriek filled the playground, causing more than a few heads to turn as the little girl raced towards Fe, diving into his hold. Em watched, smiling.

"Hello, monkey! I missed you." He said, squeezing her.

"How was your day?" Em asked her niece as she fell into the older girl's arms.

"Good." Kira replied, breaking away from the embrace and grabbing a hand of her aunt and uncle. As the trio walked away from the school, Kira poked her head out, looking in each direction of the street. "Why didn't mummy come?"

Em and Felix exchanged a quick look. Fe's gaze was questioning and Em just shook her head to suggest that she hadn't told Kira that Sarah was back.

"What do you mean monkey?" Felix asked his niece.

"Mummy's back now so why didn't she come too? Doesn't she want to see me?" Kira's voice saddened slightly but she held her poker face. Like mother like daughter.

"Did Mrs S tell you she's home?" Em asked and Kira shook her head. Felix looked at Em, confused as the teenager carried on, "Of course your mum wants to see you Kira but remember what Mrs S said?

Kira huffed, sadly, "When she's ready?"

"And?"

"When Mrs S says she's ready."

"Right. And Mrs S doesn't say so, yet. But you'll see her soon, yeah, monkey?" She stroked the little girl's hair, lovingly.

Sarah parked unevenly at the top of a multi-store parking lot. Pulling the briefcase out of the car with her, she walked over to a stone wall and sung the case above her, knocking it against the surface with great force.

After a few times of repeating the action, she lay the briefcase on the wall and tugged at the metal clasps with a pocket knife until they opened.

Inside she found x-ray scans, files and test tubes filled with blood. She picked up one of the tubes and tilted in her fingers, confusion crossing her face. She turned it over and read the label on the front, "Danielle Fornier".

Quickly, she pulled out the files and opened them up to see photocopies of passports from all over Europe. Only, each photo showed someone with Sarah's face.

The first, a red head with a pixie cut from Germany, "Katja Obinger". The second, Austrian, "Janika Zingler". The third, Italian, "Aryanna Giordano". Each passport had clippings of hair attached to them.

"Shite."

Sarah pulled out a slip of paper and read out the two names on it. The first being Beth Childs along with her address, the second "Alison Hendrix. Scarborough." Sarah read the address. "Live practically local."

Suddenly the pink phone started to ring, "And punctual." She said before answering the phone. "Hello?"

"Hey. Did you get it?" The familiar voice from their phone call earlier answered.

"Yeah." Sarah replied in an accent, still confused with the whole situation.

"Well, bring it tomorrow, okay?" After Sarah didn't answer, the voice carried on, "Hello?"

"Hang on," Sarah had already gotten too deep in this, she took the phone, away from her ear and deliberated whether or not she should reveal herself. "Screw it." She brought the phone back up to her ear and immediately gave up Beth's voice, displaying her own London accent, "Hello? Who am I speaking to?"

Her voice was very obviously different, not only the accent had changed but her tone was eager and her low voice was much louder, maybe even intimidating.

"Beth?" The voice on the other end was confused.

"Alison?"

"Who is this?" After, again, no response, the other woman's voice grew frustrated and a little panicked. "Who _is_ this?"

"Beth's indisposed, is this Alison?"

After a few moments hesitation the other woman's voice returned, low and threatened, "Just one, I'm a few. No family too, who am I?"

Sarah rolled her eyes, "Yeah, sorry, Riddler. Means nothing to me." She began pacing, "Look, Beth said to say I have the briefcase. Do you want me to bring it to you?" Sarah asked, hopeful to match the face behind this voice.

Until the phone hung up.

The next day, Sarah woke up early, and hurried to get out of the house in case Paul showed up and tried to speak to her. She took Beth's car and drove into Scarborough, stopping outside the house of this Alison Hendrix. "35 Black Oak Drive." She muttered.

Before she climbed out of the car, she saw the garage door opening and watched a red SUV reversing out of it. Careful, not to be too obvious she followed and soon, both cars had pulled up outside a school and were parked by the field.

Peering from behind the steering wheel, Sarah watched as two dark skinned children pulled back the door and jumped out, tugging at each other. Next a woman stepped out, and Sarah's jaw dropped as she saw yet another doppelganger in person.

"Holy shite. A soccer mom."

The lookalike began pulling her kids away from each other and proceeded to help the kids with their large bags. This must be Alison Hendrix.

The soccer mom walked to the field with the children and a large bag of soccer balls slung over her shoulder. Sarah watched for about ten minutes of whistle blowing and goal scoring before the other woman's phone rang and she pulled it out, revealing it to be yet another pink phone.

The woman spoke uneasily and nervously looked around as she rested a worrisome hand against her cheek before hanging up and heading to a shed with a bag of fruit.

Sarah followed her out of the car and across the field, her hood up. She crept up to the shed and peered in through the window, spotting a dozen cut up oranges.

Taking a deep breath, she opened the door and quietly stepped inside, looking around to find the shed empty. Until another door opened Alison walked out before loudly gasping and stepping back in surprise.

Sarah leapt back against the wall and held her arms out to reassure the woman, "I just want some answers."

Surprisingly, the Alison just huffed in annoyance and began walking quickly over to Sarah, "Are you out of your mind?" The soccer mom threw her hand at Sarah's shoulder, pushing her against the wall further. "You show your face again, around my children…" She threatened and then whispered, "How did you find me?"

Sarah whipped her arm out, hitting the woman's arm away. "The briefcase. Your address was in it." Taking a good look at Alison, Sarah stumbled out her words, "I've got what you wanted, I've got the briefcase."

Alison crossed her arm across her stomach and she hit her head lightly with her other hand and smirked, "Idiot. Do you even know who you're talking to? Hmm?" Sarah shook her head.

"Where's Beth?" Alison asked.

"Uh, she's dead."

"What?"

"I'm sorry. She killed herself." Sarah watched, uneasy, as Alison picked up the knife next to the oranges.

She waved the knife and spun around, "No. Nope, no. She wouldn't do that. That's impossible."

"Look, I can explain. My name's Sarah," She started before Alison interrupted, gesturing the knife at her.

"I don't care who you are." She spun around again, her back facing Sarah and muttered, "Why Lord? Why me? I never wanted any part of this. Do I wear a huge 'kick-me' sign on my back?"

"Please, just tell me, who are we to each other?"

Alison faced Sarah with a ridiculous smirk on her face, "Are you kidding me?" She almost chastised before violently shaking her head, "I'm not doing that. Nope, that is not my responsibility. You need to get out of here. Go and wait for a call." She began packing up the fruit and turned, walking away.

Sarah reached for the woman, grabbing her arm, "Eh, tell me what the hell-,"

Alison span round, "Let go of me. Don't you touch me." She glared at Sarah, "This is _my_ neighbourhood. You wait for a call." She turned to leave again, "Oh, and hide your ugly face on the way out of here." She added, pointing outside.

Sarah stared after her, stunned. "Bitch."

Later on, at the police station, after Sarah had finished her statement as detective Elizabeth Childs, the pink phone rang and she answered warily, "This is Sarah."

"Well, Sarah. This will be quick," Alison answered.

"Good."

"Since you apparently already know where I live, I can't find a sitter, come by after nine tonight."

"How about right now?" Sarah challenged.

"Tonight!" Alison barked back. "Bring whatever you got from the briefcase. Go around back, and go to the basement door. Knock quietly!" She added, before hanging up.

Felix climbed into the jaguar, excitedly. "Ooh, so where we going?"

Sarah laughed, "I don't know, just wanted to get out of that house. How's Kira?"

"She knows your back. Em and I went to pick her up today and she was asking for you."

Sarah smiled sadly, "S is setting up a date for me to come over and see her."

"I'll try to make it soon," Fe winked at his older sister who shook her head, amused.

"Em?"

Felix whacked his hands onto the glove compartment, causing Sarah's head to jump up and stare at his unreadable face. Was he excited or worried?

"Oh my God. She ditched school again, today. Came over to mine from somewhere, high as a bloody kite. She couldn't even walk, Sarah, she was so out of it." Worry. He was definitely worried.

Sarah shook her head, not surprised at her sister's promiscuous activities but she was anxious, "What? Where had she been?"

"I dunno, she wouldn't tell me. Some guy's, I reckon. She was stinking of pot, her hair was sticking out everywhere, mascara smudged and I'm pretty sure her top was on backwards."

"Jesus Christ," Sarah whispered. "I need to go see her. That's the last thing I bloody wanted; her turning out just like me."

Felix sighed inwardly, now understanding why Em had gotten so upset earlier when he had said something similar.

"Please. As much as she would hate to admit it, she needs you, Sarah. Though she doesn't want to think you've gotten away with running again."

"I know, I know." Sarah muttered, "Try to set something up for tomorrow at yours, yeah?"

"Yeah, alright. Just take this with you when you leave again."

Sarah rubbed her eyes, "I will, I will. I promise.

Half an hour later, Sarah pulled into Alison's road.

Felix groaned, "God! You know I never would have got in if you'd said we were going to suburbia."

Sarah rolled her eyes and parked opposite Alison's house.

"Oi, what are you doing? Don't stop, someone might see us!" He panicked.

Sarah looked out the window at the house as Felix rambled on, looking at himself in the mirror, "Christ. My skin just breaks out every time I leave the downtown. Yeah, look right there! Acne." He pointed at his chin.

"Nope. I don't see anything." Sarah shook her head.

"Am I blushing? There's redness. There's – right there. Tiny suburban stress zits, emerging in direct proximity to bad architecture."

"Look, Fe. I'm going to have the money in a couple o' days. Okay?" Sarah shifted, facing her brother. "And then, look, I'll make good with Mrs S and we'll take Kira somewhere quiet. Yeah? Somewhere warm."

"Yeah. Please…So what's in the house?"

Sarah turned and winked at him, "Won't be long."

"What?! Who's in there?!"

"Please, Fe. I just need someone to know where I am." She said climbing out of the car and towards the house, ignoring Fe's moans.

"That is not comforting! Sarah!" He called after her.

Sarah followed the other woman's instructions and soon, Alison had opened up the door for her, "Close it. Lock it."

Again, Sarah did as she was told and then followed Alison, who was wielding a gun, into the room.

"Really?"

"Be quiet, my kids are sleeping."

"You're gonna shoot me whilst your kids are sleeping?" Sarah challenged.

"You wake them, or show your face. Yes, I will shoot you."

"Well, being your twin certainly sucks." Sarah spat out.

"You really have no idea do you?" Alison stepped back and looked into another room, watching as another woman emerged into Sarah's sight.

Another twin. Only this one wore glasses, a nose ring and adorned long dreadlocks.

"Hey, I'm Cosima."

"Bloody hell." Sarah whispered.

"We talked on the phone."

Sarah stood shocked, looking back and for at the woman who were identical to her. "How many of us _are_ there?"

"Okay, define orphan, Sarah." Cosima was leant over, sitting on the couch opposite where Sarah sat whilst Alison paced nervously in the next room.

"Orphan. Orphanage…"

"So you don't know your birth parents?"

"No, I was fostered out and legally adopted and then came here."

"When?"

"We were adopted when I was like 12, came here around 16."

"Heart breaking," Alison chimed in, sarcastically, "Can we get back to Beth please?"

Cosima held her hand up to Alison, ignoring her and focused on Sarah, "Wait, 'we'? Do you have a biological sibling?"

"Yeah, my little sister." Sarah asked, suspicious now and feeling protective over Em. Why would they want to know about her?

Alison poked in again, continuing the subject of Beth, "Suicide? I don't accept that. This one's some low life grifter. How do we know she didn't push her?"

"Oi! I already told you, I didn't want to be her. I got stuck, I was running from my own shit."

Alison scoffed, "I can only imagine…"

Cosima spoke softly, "Alison, I'm _very_ sorry about Beth, but she was… losing it. Like clinically."

"She was a cop. She had tools, if _she_ couldn't cope, then I mean…" Alison waved her hands in defeat and walked into the next room, panicked.

Sarah leaned towards Cosima, "Look, can you just tell me what the hell this is?"

"Don't tell her anything!" Alison yelled from the next room.

"Uh, short answer? No." Cosima's hands flew around, as if she were trying to paint the picture for Sarah.

"How are we all related?" Sarah asked as Alison walked back into the room.

"We're not!" She yelled at Sarah.

Cosima gave Alison a quick warning look and put her hands up to calm her slightly, "Well, we are by nature. She's referring to nurture."

"Just give us the briefcase." Alison turned towards Sarah.

Sarah leaned back in her chair, "I'm not giving you anything 'till you give me some answers."

"You don't rate answers." She replied, patronisingly.

"Alison." Cosima grew frustrated at her.

"Fine! She wants in?" Alison threw her arms up in defeat and stood over Sarah. "We're clones. We're someone's experiment and they're killing us off. Is that helpful?"

Sarah looked up at her, dumbfounded. After a few moments silence, a small voice made its way down the stairs, "Mummy?"

Alison whirled round, straightening her jumper over the gun poking out of her trousers. "Gemma!"

"Who are those ladies?" Gemma asked innocently.

Alison hurried up the stairs and picked up her daughter, careful to shield her eyes away from the women. "They're just mummy's friends." She ran up the stairs with Gemma.

Sarah sighed, sinking into the chair slowly.

"Sorry. I wanted to float that whole clone thing a lot softer." Cosima shook her head.

Felix had grown bored and frankly quite worried at Sarah's elongated absence and so he climbed out of the car, creeping into the garden he saw Sarah enter earlier.

The light was on in the basement so he cupped his hands over his eyes and gazed inside for a closer look. He spotted Sarah in an armchair, listening intently to a dreadlocked woman with her back to the window but before he could inspect further he heard someone shout.

"Freeze!"

"Oh my God!" Fe spun round, waving his hands up automatically and panicking even more when it looked like Sarah dressed in nice clothes was pointing a gun at him.

"What are you doing in my yard?!" The woman shouted.

"No! No, do not shoot me, please!" Felix pleaded, his hands trying to calm the woman down.

"Hey! Hey! Alison, Alison," He felt relieved when he heard his _real_ sister's voice and she came bouncing in between himself and the gun wielder, protectively shielding him with her hands.

"Put it down," Sarah carried on, walking towards Alison, the gun shaking in her worried clutch.

"Get out of the way," Alison's voice was higher and more unstable than before.

"He's with me, okay?"

"Move!"

"It's okay," Sarah whispered calmly, edging closer to Alison and lifting her fingers to slowly move the gun down. Once Alison's countenance had become relaxed, Sarah lifted her other hand and swiftly slapped the woman hard across the face.

"You point a gun at my brother again, I will kick the living shite out of you!" She threatened, holding the collar of a very frightened Alison's shirt, who hurried off, whimpering as soon as Sarah let go.

Felix stood back, astonished and looking around as if there were any more lookalikes about to jump out and scare him.

"We need to get my shit." Sarah trudged back, pulling Fe along with her. "What the hell were you doing here?"

But before Felix could answer, they rounded the corner, and yet another twin appeared, holding Sarah's belongings. "Holy shit." Felix muttered, as they both pulled up short in front of the dreadlocked woman.

"Hey, you need this?" She asked in a thick west coast accent. "You just broke the first rule of Clone Club,"

"What? Never tell anyone about Clone Club?" Sarah asked, unimpressed.

Sarah's lookalike cocked her head out to the side to see around Sarah at Felix and smiled slightly, lifting her free hand up to give a little wave, "Hi, err, awkward, I'm Cosima."

Felix attempted to wave back, but in his shocked stupor, it looked more like he was trying to swat a fly away.

Cosima turned back to Sarah, "You want answers, I want the briefcase. Seriously, it's life or death." She said, handing Sarah her phones.

"Holy shite!" Felix exclaimed back in his apartment as he stared at the birth certificates of women identical to his sister. "Clones! Clones?"

"They're not me, they're not. They're completely different people," Sarah explained determinedly, pouring herself another drink.

"Soccer mom Sarah. Science geek Sarah! Last time I checked, human cloning was illegal, let alone impossible!" Felix started.

"Yeah, leave it out! Okay? It doesn't matter!"

"It _does_ matter! Dead Beth, dead German, three other Euros, those two, you. That's eight! And, dreadlocks is going on about a blood sample, saying it's life or death. You can't just ignore it!"

"Yes I can! I'm just me, okay?" Sarah argued back, her voice wavering a little before she controlled herself, "The song remains the same: we get the 75 grand back from Beth's partner, we get Kira, and we get as far away from this as possible!"

"And what about Em? What, you're just going to up and disappear, leave her again?" Fe questioned.

"I can't take her, kidnap her from Mrs S. She's still legally Em's guardian." Sarah throws her hands up, "In a few months, she'll turn 18 and then she can come with us. But do not tell her about _any_ of this! Okay? Mrs S either."


	5. A Youthful Mess

_Here's a chapter full of angst for you lucky lot. Some other bits and bobs too._

* * *

Emma sat with her legs crossed on the chair, reading. Unfortunately, it was raining, hard, and so she couldn't sit by herself outside, therefore, the library would have to do for today. It was lunch and she still had two hours left to get through her classes. She could ditch of course, but she didn't feel like going to see Jax; she needed a couple of days to mentally recover before seeing him again, and she still wasn't on speaking turns with her sister. Em didn't feel particularly tethered to anywhere, so she'd wait until this evening and then go find a party or something.

Feeling a vibration in her pocket, she absentmindedly picked it out of her coat, finishing her paragraph before glancing at the screen.

 ** _Wanna come round after skl? miss u. X – Fe_**

She texted back immediately, happy to hear from her brother as she knew he'd spend all his time with Sarah and as the two weren't speaking, he hadn't spoken to his younger sibling for a while.

 ** _around half 3? might actually spend some time in this shit hole…_**

Going back to her book, she didn't expect her brother's reply to arrive so quickly, especially with the terrible signal in the high school's library.

 _Whenever luv. here all day. gd luck ;) X – Fe_

She smiled and wished for her day to go even faster now, excited about hanging out with her big brother.

As soon as classes were over, she practically ran out of the school, as usual, until she rounded a corner and could no longer see it.

Plucking her music from her bag, she plugged in her earphones and bounced along to the music all the way to Fe's apartment, blissfully unaware of the world going on around her.

She climbed the last step of the building and strode towards the door, pulling out the earpieces as she tugged open the heavy, metal door.

"You have no idea how unpleasant my day has been, Fe." She groaned into the room, not looking at anything in it until she'd heaved the door shut behind her and swung her bag onto the floor.

She looked up and spotted a guilty looking Felix as he stood in the centre of the room opposite a very tired faced Sarah.

"What the hell, Fe? I should have known there was a catch. Like you'd actually wanna spend time with me." She sighed, "I don't need this bullshit", shaking her head as she reached for her bag and turned to walk out again.

"Em, wait!" Fe called as he rushed over to her, his hand against the door, preventing her from leaving and slowly pushed the bag off her shoulder. "Just listen, okay? You need to sort this out, both of you." He said, looking at Sarah. "We're family, for Christ's sake. Which is why we're here in the first place; you're both too bloody stubborn."

"Felix-," Em said rolling her eyes.

"Sort it out." He said directly to her, giving her a warning look before looking up, turning to Sarah with the same glare and opening the door, "I'm gonna go get drunk by myself at Bobbi's bar."

The door shutting behind him with a loud thud was the only sound for a few moments as both sisters just stared at each other, one angry, and the other apologetic.

"Well? What did you want to speak to me for?" Em broke the silence, coldly and crossed the room to pour herself a drink.

"Listen, Em. I know I should have called you or something whilst I was away. It was wrong of me to just-,"

Em interrupted and scoffed, "Yeah, 'course. That would have made it so much better." She said sarcastically glaring at her sister.

Sarah lifted her hands up in a shrug, "What do you want me to say then, Em? I've already apologised!"

"You _left_ us, Sarah! Dropped your six year old off for the night and you've only just bloody returned! And you act like nothing's happened." Em gestured to the door, "Fe welcomes you back with open arms, too terrified that you'll run away again if he says anything bad about you! So _you_ think it's fine to just disappear and that we'll treat you like nothing's happened when you get back?"

"I'm trying to fix this, Emma!" Sarah yelled back at her sister who knew she was getting serious now as neither of her siblings called her by her full name unless they meant it. "But it isn't like this is anything new!"

"Oh and that's s'posed to make it any better?"

"I didn't say that…I'm just saying, you knew it would happen sooner or later," Sarah ran her hand through her hair, frustrated, knowing what she'd just said wouldn't help a bit.

"Which makes it even worse; you've been abandoning me my whole life! But then Kira comes along and I think "Thank God, now Sarah will stay" because you're a mother and your kid _needs_ you." Em frowns, trying to keep control of her voice as she shouts at Sarah.

"And okay, so you leave less and less and for shorter times, sometimes even taking her with you. But then you just leave for pretty much a year, with some low-life scumbag who bloody _beats_ you, Sarah! You still preferred getting _hit_ than being with us."

Sarah stares at her little sister, and angry, guilt-ridden tears start to pool in her eyes. She grits her teeth, refusing to let them fall. "I'm sorry! After a while, I'd been gone for too long and we had been doing stupid shit to survive. I couldn't let you see me like that and I could _not_ be a mother to Kira in that state."

"I knew Mrs S wouldn't let me have her back by then and you were all better off without me because I have always been like this, you're right, and I was fed up of being a burden."

Em grew angrier now, "Oh shut up. Don't you dare make this into a pity party, Sarah. We are in the same position! Only you get to run away whenever you want and I have to deal with everyone else breaking down in the aftermath of hurricane Sarah. How is that fair? Are you trying to get back at me for something? Was I a burden to you? Because you didn't ask to get stuck with a baby when we were found."

Sarah's heart broke at the thought of Em not feeling wanted and she stepped closer to the teenager, "No, no, no. It's you, Kira and Felix, okay? You're the most important people in my life, yeah?" She hoped her widened eyes were clear enough for Em to read the truth in them.

"Look, Em. You have every right to be mad at me for the last ten months, for you and for Kira. But I promise you, I'm done with that, yeah? I'm done with that life now. I've grown up and I'm _going_ to be _here_ , yeah, right here." Her voice broke.

Em stared intently at Sarah, trying to see the proof behind her words, "I've heard that before…" Her stern tone was back.

"It's different now." Sarah stepped back, sinking backwards into the couch. "It's different," She repeated. "Kira's getting older. She notices when I'm not around now and she needs me. She deserves a stable life, something nurturing, for once." She whispered the last bit. "I know, I _know_ I fucked up. But you're my best friend, you're my sister." Sarah looked across at her Em, blushing at how open she was being.

Em stared at her sister for a moment and then fell back into the couch next to Sarah.

"You need to talk to me more. I'm not a little kid anymore."

Sarah looked down at her hands, thinking about everything that was going on in her life at the moment. Everything she could tell her sister. Everything she knew she shouldn't.

"Promise me you'll tell me what's going on." It wasn't a question, it was a demand from the teen's lips. If Sarah wanted her sister back, she'd have to lie.

"Okay. But you have to stop skipping school." Sarah finally voiced.

Em turned to her sister with a smile and proffered her pinkie finger, "Okay."

Sarah's smiled back and linked her finger through Em's. She leant in to her sister, kissed her cheek, and wrapped her up in her arms.

"Dinner?" The older girl whispered, pulling away from the embrace to look at the teen.

"Not if you're making it." Em joked.

Felix arrived home a few hours later, hoping that he'd given his sisters enough time and that his apartment was still in one piece.

He opened the door quietly and fairly optimistically as he hadn't heard any screaming from the other side. He hadn't heard any noise at all, come to think of it. Fe realised why when he spotted both sisters curled up on the couch together, fast asleep, and surrounded by empty cans of soda and a pizza box.

Smiling to himself, he looked up to the ceiling and whispered, "thank God!" before grabbing a blanket from his bed and tipping it over the girls, watching Em snuggle further into Sarah's side.

Sarah woke up to a stinging in her arm and slowly opened her eyes when she struggled to move it to shake away the throbbing. She panned her eyes down to find Em sleeping soundly against her chest and Sarah smiled.

Carefully, she lifted her arm and slid out from the couch, gently laying Emma's body down in her absence.

"Mornin'." Felix smiled over at Sarah from his bed where he was reading a magazine, mug in the other hand.

"Mornin', Fe. What time is it?" Sarah wandered over to pour herself a coffee and tried to tame her hair by brushing her fingertips through the wavy curls.

"Around seven." He replied, jumping out of bed and pulling on a jumper. "I didn't want to wake you Sleeping Beauties last night. So I assume it went well?" His head tilted to Emma's sleeping form.

Sarah smiled, nodding as she watched her little sister sleep, "Yeah. Everything's fine. Thank God; I can barely cope with not seeing one of them. Which reminds me," She hurried over to the door and grabbed her bag before continuing, "I need to get the money from Beth's partner and then we'll go get Kira tonight, yeah?"

"Heard that before…" Felix sighed, rolling his eyes at the idea he knew wasn't good.

Sarah ignored him and quietly stepped over to Em, lightly shaking her shoulder.

"Em. Em, wake up." She whispered gently to the teenager.

Emma rolled onto her back with a groan and opened her eyes slightly, quickly lifting her hand to her face to hide from the harsh light of the morning. She looked up at Sarah as if to ask why the hell she'd been woken up so early.

"You should probably head back to S', yeah? Don't want you to be late for school," Sarah mocked and laughed when Em tossed a cushion her way.

Emma stretched and sat up right as Sarah bent to give her a hug. "You're going today, yeah?"

Em nodded, still half asleep before slowly pulling on her shoes.

Sarah rushed to Felix, kissing his cheek before running out the door, "See you later." She called.

Em cringed at the volume so early in the morning and turned to Felix with a confused expression, "Where has she got to be so bloody early?"

"God knows." Fe lied as he poured some cereal into a bowl, thinking about his older sister's double life.

Creeping into the house, Em quietly shut the door behind her and cursed under her breath when she stepped on a creaky floorboard.

With her eyes closed, she silently waited for Mrs S to round the corner and begin shouting at her but instead heard tiny feet padding quickly across the wooden floor.

She opened her eyes, relieved to see her niece instead of foster mother. Kira ran up to her and jumped into her arms, "Auntie Em!"

Em returned the embrace, willingly, pressing a kiss into the girls sandy curls. "Hey."

Thankful she now had a defence in her arms; Mrs S wouldn't berate her with the little girl in earshot, she headed into the kitchen.

"Jesus Christ, you look a mess." S scoffed from the table.

Kira placed her little finger on Emma's cheek, tracing the rings of smudged mascara, gently.

"Yeah, thanks." She replied sarcastically as she settled Kira on the ground and turned to walk up the stairs.

"And where do you think you're going?" S shouted sternly after her.

"For a shower."

"Emma! Where have you been all night? I barely saw you yesterday morning and now you come home a day later, looking like…" S stopped herself from cursing in front of Kira, "Like a bloomin' tramp. Where have you been?"

Em dropped her bag by the stairs, "Fe's. He texted me and I went after school, yeah, nothing dangerous…" She said mockingly and looked at Kira, choosing her next words carefully, "I kinda fell asleep there, alright?"

"You better still go to school, even if you're late. I want you at school or they'll be no going to Felix's," She opened her mouth to further chastise her daughter but was interrupted instead.

"Can you shout at me later, 'cause I really need a shower?"

Mrs S waved her hand, motioning for Em to go and so the teen spun around running upstairs as fast as she could, and the older woman turned to Kira who was watching her aunt climb the stairs and giggling.

"Right then. Come on, love, put the paint away and pop your coat on. We best be off."

Sarah hurries through the door of the police station and heads towards Beth's computer.

"Hey Beth, I thought you were still off?" Angela DeAngelis' voice makes her turn.

"Uh, yeah, I just can't get enough. Is Art around?"

Angie barely nods her head when Sarah hears a low voice, "Beth, what the hell's going on?"

Sarah smiles at Angie quickly before spinning round and hurriedly follows Art, "Uh, yeah, I've gotta talk to you for a couple seconds."

She watches him pull on his coat and starts, "Things are bad with Paul,"

"Okay?"

"Any second he's gonna find that joint account empty…"

"Look, you get the cash when you're back on active duty. That's the deal." Art sides past Sarah.

"Childs," The Chief's voice rings out.

Sarah points to the door, "Sorry, just saying hello.

"No you're not. Both of you," He gestures towards Sarah and Art to follow him into his office, which they do.

"Bad news," He smiles up at them, "You're reinstated."

Sarah smiles and shakes his hand, picking up the gun, badge and ammunition he'd set on the table for her.

"Well, thank God." Art scoffs. "Buckle up, kid; you got a ten forty five."

Sarah frowns as they walk out of the office, confused as to what Art's going on about but quickly ducks away to try to adorn herself with the gun, "Uh, hey. Two seconds."

The day past slowly for Sarah. After the ten forty-five, which turned out to be patrolling a 'suspicious area', she'd spent the rest of the day at her desk, "filing". The only thing that kept her going was the money Art would give her at the end of the day.

She watched Beth's partner until he stood up, put his coat on and walked out of the building. Sarah jumped out of her chair, grabbing her coat and followed him.

"Hey, Art. Wait up."

The dark man turned around at his name being called as Sarah ran up, pulling on her coat, "Look, Art. This shit with Paul is about to go sideways, okay? I need to get to the bank." She gave him a firm tone.

He hesitated before looking her up and down, "Let me see your weapon."

Sarah looked at him confused, "Huh?"

"Come on. Show it to me." Art pulled her aside as she dove into her jacket, struggling to pull out the gun.

Art grabbed her arm, turning the gun to show the bottom, "It's empty."

"Yeah? What? We left in a hurry."

"You road with me empty!"

"Art, it's a ten forty five for Regs. Right, Art, like, I mean who am I gonna shoot?"

"That's bullshit, Beth for Regs and you're partner. Look if this shooting has you trigger shocked, Beth, you got-,"

"No, I'm not, I'm not. Just give me an hour or two to get up to speed for Christ sake." Sarah stuffed the gun back into its holster.

"You can get up to speed on the desk, Beth. I'll work this with D'Angelis. Get outta here." Art stormed past Sarah.

She spun round grabbing for him, "Hey-,"

"Look you ask me about that money one more time, Beth, I swear to God, it's going in the shredder." With that, he left.

Sarah stood, frowning, "Shit."

Just then she heard a ringing, and she fished the pink phone out of her pocket. "Hello?" She answered in her own voice.

"Sarah. Hey, it's Cosima."

"Oh, hey. What do you want?" Sarah walked further away from the station, suspiciously looking over her shoulder.

"Erm, okay. Well, I just wanted to know if you'd changed your mind on the briefcase. You know, because I'm kinda on a tight schedule here and I need to get the information from it. Is there somewhere we could meet up later?"

Sarah sighed but she knew Felix was right; she couldn't run away from this. At least, not yet, "Yeah, okay fine. I'll meet you later this evening. I'm sending you the address." Sarah typed the address to Felix's loft as the American babbled on.

"Awesome, thanks, Sarah. I'll let Alison know."

"Alright, gotta go." Sarah hung up as Cosima was mid goodbye and headed back into the station to get the keys to Beth's car.

Although Emma had been late to school, she hadn't missed much however most of her day was spent being shouted at by the principal for skipping out and the rest of the day was spent in isolation. So all in all it was an uneventful day, until she walked out of school.

"Emma! Emma Manning!" She heard a gruff voice call after her so she spun round defensively and found Vic the Dick waiting outside her school gates.

She stormed up to him, noting the bloody bandage wrapped around is left hand and shouted began shouting at him, "You followed me to my school? You bloody psycho! I thought I told you to leave me alone." She stopped when he began to cry.

Horrified she stared at the pathetic grown man who was crying because a teenage girl was shouting at him. He reached for Em who batted his hand away, "The bloody hell's wrong with you?" She asked in a quieter tone.

"I'm so sorry…I should have treated her better. She deserved better, and it's all my fault…" He blubbered like a baby.

"Look, mate. I don't know what you're going on about but you need to talk to Sarah about this."

He stared at her, a flicker of confusion crossing his face before he went to lean into her again. This time she didn't protest as much but didn't welcome the contact either.

"You just look so much like her. Felix told me I had to stay away from you and her kid but I just…I can't, I need to stay connected to her."

At this, Emma was confused as ever and threw the, clearly very drunk, man off of her, "Okay, really what are you on about?"

Wiping at his tears, Vic's eyes widened, "You don't know do you? It was because of me." He wept, pointing at his chest, "I was the reason Sarah killed herself. I'm so sorry."

A moment passed. "What?" Em whispered. "Are, are you sure? When?"

Vic looked up from his hands, guiltily, "Oh God. You didn't know. I thought Felix would have told you."

"Vic! Spit it out. You're scaring me now. What's happened to Sarah?" Emma could feel her heart beat in her ears. What could have possibly happened to Sarah since this morning?!

Guiltily, Vic managed to speak between whimpers. "Last week, Sarah threw herself in front of a train. Because of me!" He wailed.

Em breathed a sigh of release and pushed Vic away from her once more, almost laughing at the pathetic story her brother must have told him, "And you know this for sure?" She tried to hide her smile.

"Felix took me to see her body at the morgue. It was her." Vic mumbled.

Emma's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Vic clearly thought that Sarah was dead, that much was plausible but how could he have seen her dead body from last week?

She turned on her heels, leaving the man weeping on the sidewalk as she tried to make sense of it all. Before she could think about calling either of her siblings, her phone rang.

"Oi, oi." She answered when she saw Mrs S' caller id.

"Home, now." S replied and hung up the phone.

Emma swallowed hard at Siobhan's harsh tone and her walking sped up a little.

"S?" Em called out as soon as she'd shut the door behind her. She rounded into the front room and spotted Mrs S sitting at the kitchen table. Slinging her bag and coat onto the couch, she walked over to her mum's pissed off countenance.

"Where's Kira?" Emma sat down, pulling her hair to one side.

"At a play date." S answered, sliding a scrap of paper across the table.

"What's wrong?" Em glanced down at the report card she had tried to rid of. "Oh."

"You're bloody right, 'oh'." She waited for Em to argue back, slightly surprised when she didn't. "The next time you want to hide a report from me, maybe dispose of it anywhere but your bedroom."

"Well, how was I supposed to know you'd go all psycho detective and rummage around in my bloody rubbish?" Em scoffed, rolling her eyes away from S.

"This is bloody ridiculous, Emma. Not only are you failing- look at me - not only are you failing but your attendance is 41%! What on earth are you thinking?" S stood up now, pacing around the table, waving the scrap in her hands. "I send you to a great school, with impeccable teaching and you're wasting it all for what, hanging out with your ex-juvie mates and god knows who else?"

"I didn't even want to go to that school!"

"The principal called me, and he wants to have a talk with me about your future at the school." S carried on, ignoring Em' complaints.

Em ran a hand through her hair, "Whatever, I don't care. They can expel me. Not like I need school anyway."

Siobhan sat down, a disbelieving smile across her face as she shook her head, "Is that right, Emma? What are you going to do with your life then, dear?"

Em shook her head at S' condescending tone and leant forward, "I'll figure it out. Sarah and Fe are doing just fine."

Mrs S looked intently at Em, a flicker of grief and pity crossed her face, making Em shift in her chair, uneasy, until S spoke. "Really? Well, I'm not going to be waiting here to pick up the pieces. You're smarter than that."

"I don't bloody care. I'm going to be out of her either way in a few months."

Siobhan held Em's gaze solemnly until she stood up with a sigh and emptied her teacup into the sink.

S spun round and strode to the door, without looking at Em, "I'm going to pick up Kira." She pulled on her coat, "And when I get back I need you to watch her for the evening."

The teen groaned, "She's not my child! I'm going out tonight." Em stood and walked over to her stuff pulling on her coat.

S was too quick and grabbed Em's bag before she could run out the door, and stopped her with a harsh tone, "Don't even think about leaving this house. You are grounded, Emma. And Kira is your responsibility."

It was such a cold and icy tone that it stopped Em in her tracks, giving S enough time to throw the bag back on the couch and walk out the door before the girl even realised her jaw was hanging open.

The teenager sighed guiltily at her foster mum's low tone and dropped her head, certain S had left until she heard, "You're grounded." And the door shut.

Em ripped her jacket off, flinging it onto the chair which she threw across the room accompanied by a shout of expletives, as she stormed upstairs.

"Felix! Fe open up!" Sarah hammered on the door.

 ** _Where are you? –Jax_**

Em threw her phone onto the bed as she laid back, running her hand through her hair. She stared at the yellowing ceiling wondering how she would end up. Like her sister, running away from her problems, abandoning those close to her, escaping the claws of the law. Like her brother, sleeping around with anybody who had a pocket full, dealing when he needed the next load of groceries. Like Mrs S, stuck raising children who weren't hers, moving away from her life to a different country, making her bitter and resenting everyone around her.

Em exhaled deeply before the doorbell rang, tearing her way from her thoughts. She trudged downstairs wondering who it would be; no one calls round here.

She peeked through the curtain on the door and spotted a head full of golden ringlets before she pulled open the door just to catch S pull away from the kerb.

"Hey Monkey." She stepped aside to let the little girl in.

Kira untangled herself from the straps of her rucksack.

"Did you have fun at your mate's house?"

Kira shrugged, turned to take her shoes off and walked over to grab Em's hand, pulling her over to the couch.

"You okay, Monkey?" Kira was too quiet as she curled into the side of Em, nodding her head.

"Shall we watch a movie?"

"Yeah".

Em switched on the TV after slipping in the 'Mrs. Doubtfire' DVD and wrapped her arm around the little girl.

Em's phone began to ring upstairs. She ignored the persistent caller and focused on the television screen.

"Just one night alone, Jax." She muttered into her sigh.


	6. The Manning Way

_Sorry for the late update, I haven't had any internet for a while - which has been really nice! But here's a short yet revealing chapter._

 _Let me know what you think!_

* * *

Kira's barely touched PB&J sat on the plate, as she picked around the crust, rolling the crumbs into little balls before neatly placing them back on the plate's surface.

"No you're not. What's wrong, Kira?" The teen probed further, sitting up to face the little one. Kira's barely touched PB&J sat on the plate, as she picked around the crust, rolling the crumbs into little balls before neatly placing them back on the plate's surface.

"No you're not. What's wrong, Kira?" The teen probed further, sitting up to face the little one.

"You okay, Monkey?" Kira was too quiet as she curled into the side of Em, nodding her head.

After a few moments of hesitation, Kira looked up at the older girl, "I don't want to go to school tomorrow."

"Oh, monkey, was it because of what I said the other day? Don't listen to me – school at your age is really fun!"

"No, I like school."

"Oh, okay. Then what's the problem… is that boy still being nasty to you?"

Kira nodded, "His friends were laughing at me today, too."

Emma shook her head angrily, pulling the girl off her lap and setting her down beside her, "Don't listen to them, Kira. Okay? You know what?"

"What?" Kira questioned, quietly.

"Well most people would probably tell you to ignore him. Just go about the rest of the day pretending he doesn't exist. Pretend that what he says doesn't bother - even if it really does. Hopefully, he'll get bored and leave you alone if you 'rise above his behaviour'." Emma put on a breathy patronising voice, imitating the teachers who tried to give her the exact same lecture. She took a juice box out of the fridge, slamming the door shut as she made her way back over to the girl, handing over the drink.

"Does it work for you?" Kira asked.

"Well, most of the time it should work, but, I guess... not always." Em thinks back to her recent encounters with Vic, hoping that he will leave her alone for good.

Sitting back down, Emma pulled Kira back on her lap, dragging the blanket over them.

"What if he still laughs at me?"

"Well, I probably shouldn't tell you this yet. But it _is_ a family secret,"

Kira's wonderful orbs began to glow as she sat up, listening intently to the older girl.

"You know what us Manning girls do if anyone tries to cross us, yeah?" Emma smirked down at the little girl and made a fist. "Sock 'em 'til they take it back."

Scrunching up her face into a scowl, Kira curled her little fist into a ball and swung her arm into a punch in the air.

Emma smiled, "That's it. Just like that, Monkey. They won't mess with you again."

Em switched on the TV and wrapped her arm around the little girl. "If they do, you just send them to me and I'll sort them out." Both girls erupted into a fit of giggles.

"Just sock 'em 'til they take it back..." Kira quietly repeated her aunt's words.

Em smiled, until she was reminded of her bully. Sarah's bully. Vic the Dick. Why was he so convinced Sarah was dead?

She knew there was something going on and Felix was the only one she could get it out of.

Felix looked around in disbelief at the set up in his apartment. Sat around his coffee table were three clones. His sister had bloody clones! Was he still high from this morning?

Sauntering over to Sarah, he handed her a glass of Bourbon as his phone began to ring. Glancing away from the identicals, Em's smiling face lit up his screen. "Shit."

Putting on a cheery voice, he answered, "Hey, Em! I meant to call you earlier, we were worried about you when you left yesterday. Was S mad?"

"Cut the bullshit, Fe and tell me what the bloody hell's going on." Emma's voice was hushed but sharp.

"Uh, what do you mean?"

"Vic found me after school. He said that Sarah threw herself in front of a train, last week. What the hell, Fe?"

Felix mouthed "shit" at Sarah who gave him a confused look, standing up from her place on the couch to follow him into the kitchen area.

"Fe? Felix! Answer me, what've you done?!" Em voice crackled through the phone.

"Yeah, err? What? Em, why are you whispering?"

"Kira's asleep on top of me."

"Oh. It's nothing, Em, don't worry about it."

"No it's bloody not! Tell me what happened, Felix!"

"Uh, he'd probably drank himself to oblivion. What else did he say?"

"He said he saw her body in a morgue…"

"He was off his head, Em. Don't listen to him."

"Oh this is ridiculous, you need to tell me what's bloody going on. I'm coming over."

"No! No, don't come over, Emma. This is none of your concern. Stay with Kira and just mind your own bloody business." His tone was icy.

After a few moments of silence, Emma spoke very quietly, her voice trembling with anger, "Okay. Fe, if you say so."

Felix hung up and took a swig of his drink, before turning to Sarah with a guilty look. "Shit. I'm an awful brother but Vic was outside her school, told her you had topped yourself and she was freaking out."

"Shite. Bloody Vic..." Sarah shook her head, frustrated.

Felix exhaled loudly, bringing them both back to the reality and picked up the glasses of wine he had filled for Alison and Cosima.

They thanked him and Cosima noticed his pale face, "Don't worry, you get used to it."

"To clones? Right." Sarah scoffed.

"Was that you're sister?" Alison asked.

"Yeah."

"How old is she?" Alison scoffed and sipped at her wine, holding up a photo frame of the three siblings sat together by the lake.

"Why does it matter?" Sarah glared at the soccer bitch.

"I think Alison's just wondering how your sister is involved in all of this." Cosima tried to ease the tension.

It was Felix's turn to get annoyed now, "What? No, she's not involved in this. Right, Sarah?" He turned to Sarah for help but she seemed just as irritated at the idea of her sister being tied into this whole thing too.

"Cosima, you can't really believe that _she_ has a biological sister!" Alison raised her voice and gestured to Sarah. "We're clones! It's impossible, right?"

"That is true. It's highly doubtful that we would have biological siblings. She does look pretty similar to us, though. I mean, maybe if she was a twin?"

Sarah shook her head, "She's seventeen."

"Okay, great, then it's settled. Sarah is the only clone in the family." Felix mumbled into his glass, drunk on the chaos of this whole situation.

"Well, if she _is_ in fact related to Sarah, then she shares some of our genetic material, right? So, she would have to be part of an experiment too because our genetic material is synthetic."

"Bloody hell. Can we talk about the dead clones instead, this is hurting my brain." Felix walked over to the kitchen as Sarah shook her head in disbelief.

"But she can't be. That would be impossible." Alison mumbled, waving her hand in the air as if to dissipate the idea with her fingertips.

"Just wait till you meet her. To think that I thought _she_ could have been Sarah's clone for all those years." Felix laughed to himself.

"They're not going to meet her, Felix. Em stays out of this. End of."

The stern tone of the Brit was enough to silence the room, although the buzzing of unvoiced questions rang across the room.

Sarah turned to Alison, "You said someone was hunting us. Why? How many of us?"

Alison looked towards the scientist and gulped at her drink.

Cosima adjusted her glasses and leant forward, using her hands as if she were drawing a picture to illustrate her words, "Six months ago, Katja-."

"Katja Obinger? The German?" Sarah remembered from the passports.

"Right. Katja contacted Beth with this crazy story about her genetic identicals being hunted in Europe."

"Brilliant." Sarah sighed and took a sip of her drink.

"Yeah." Cosima looked sheepish but carried on, "So, Beth used facial recognition software to find driver's licenses in North America. Two matches."

"Yours and Alison's."

"Yeah but who is the original? Who's created us?"

"Who's killing us?" Alison chimed in rhetorically, her index finger and thumb cradling the bridge of her nose.

"So what happened to the German?" Sarah asked, although she was pretty sure she already knew the answer.

A gloomy, knowing expression painted the scientist's countenance and Sarah sighed, her eyes closed, "Jesus Christ."

Cosima looked back at Sarah, "We need to know who's killing us but we lost our cop, so…however you got into her shoes, we really need you to stay there."

"Stay a cop to help you?"

"To help _us._ Help us find out who's killing us." Alison voice was serious.

"How?!" Sarah turned to Alison, "I'm not a cop! Beth's partner's going to figure that out. Being Beth's what got me into this mess in the first place."

"Well you should have thought about that before you stole Beth's life!"

"Alison!" Cosima warned. "Look, Sarah. We are your biological imperative now."

"You can't run away from this now. For the sake of your family and ours." Alison was the most reasonable at this moment than she had been all night.

After a few moments of pleading stares, Sarah knew the women were right. This is really happening and she had to face up to something for once in her life. "Okay, fine. Alright. I'll be Beth."

Cosima smiled gently, "Can I have the briefcase, please?" She asked after a few moments.

"Why do you need it?"

Cosima shrugged and pointed at it, "The answers are in the briefcase."

Sarah sighs, "All right," She says, grabbing the briefcase, "Just answer me one thing."

"Anything. Yes." Cosima answered eagerly, leaning forward.

"If we're genetically identical, do you get that little patch of dry skin between your eyebrows?" Sarah smirks as Cosima lets out a little giggle.

"That's good. Try to keep your sense of humour; Beth couldn't." She sighed.

Em looked across from the kitchen over to where Kira was sleeping on the couch. She'd passed out a few minutes into the movie, which was when Emma decided to call Felix.

The teen was restless, ready to run - a trait which seemed common in her genes. It wasn't helping that everyone around her was acting so suspicious. She knew Felix was up to something with Sarah, and there's no way she'd get it out of her sister. But after her phone call to Felix she was now certain they were hiding something from her and she wished she didn't care so much about it.

She needed to go. She needed to pull a Manning classic and leave town for a few days maybe even weeks. But she was stuck. She was always stuck. She was always tethered to this house because her sister was always the one to run. She was stuck looking after the kid. Not that she didn't love Kira and love looking after her but she needed freedom and she didn't need to be looking after someone else's child.

Em was tired off S going off on her every second of the day. She just needed to get out. Get away and escape from everything for a while. And she knew just the place to go.

Gently and very carefully, so as to not wake the sleeping girl, Em lifted Kira from the couch, and climbed the stairs the girl's room.

Em quietly closed the door and headed to her room, grabbing a book and resting her head back onto the pillow. A few chapters in, Em heard the front door close and Siobhan's footsteps up the stairs. The older woman, hesitated outside the teen's room before the light in the hallway flickered and swallowed up the shadows.

Something had been up ever since Sarah came back. Felix and Sarah were onto something and it was only confirmed by the earlier phone call.

Once S was in her room, Em tiptoed across the floorboards and carefully opened the door, attempting to avoid any hinges from squeaking.

The hallway was dark and all the lights were off, only the soft, warm glow from Kira's night light gave illumination to the sleeping house. The place was silent and that meant Mrs S was asleep, hopefully.

Emma closed the door and crept over to her window, slowly opening it and grabbed her back as she swung over the window sill and steadied herself on the sloping roof.

She had stuffed a twig in place so she could creep back in through her window when she got back and with that, she tossed her bag into a bush down below and followed after it.

"Shit!" She hissed as she landed awkwardly but nevertheless started running towards her brother's loft.

Smiling she climbed up the stairs two at a time, congratulating herself for getting there in less than ten minutes.

With her hand resting against the handle on the door, she tried to steady her breathing and quieten the panting and that's when she heard low murmurs from inside. Her siblings had company. Maybe something to do with all their secrecy?

Tugging at the door, she felt a flicker of relief when it opened, fulfilling her motive to catch them by surprise, however, when she looked into the room she hadn't realised that she would, in fact, be the one in shock.

There were three of them.

Three Sarah's. They were different but they were Sarah. Em blinked a few times, thinking back to earlier on in the day when she might have taken something, a hallucinogen maybe? Nope, no Jax today.

"H-holy shit." She finally managed to croak out.

Both women looked like a deer caught in headlights but stared back at her with no wariness, almost familiarity.

Although they were Sarahs. They couldn't look more different from one another despite their impeccably identical features. One Sarah sported a hippie look. A long crushed raspberry skirt fell from her waist to the tops of her dark boots. Her unique look was finished off with glasses and dreadlocks tied up into a heavy bun.

The other Sarah was a suburban mum, wearing a pink and white argyle sweater and blue jeans, sat like she had a stick up her arse. "Oh my goodness!" She gasped upon looking at Emma.

Next, she turned to look at Sarah, and then back at the women to make sure her eyes weren't playing tricks on her.

"Shit." Sarah's voice wasn't as sure of itself as it usually sounded. She seemed just as shocked as her sister.

Em opened her mouth to ask what the bloody hell was going on, but no sound came out. Instead, a deep, churning feeling ripped through the pit of her stomach and travelled like pin pricks up through her throat. She ran out of the loft and back down the stairs towards the door leading outside, but not soon enough, as a pile of vomit hit the already filthy floor.


	7. Am I Crazy or Am I Crazy?

_End of an era. Farewell Orphan Black._

 _Don't get used to these quick updates, just feeling extra inspired today! Here's Em's reaction to the sestrahood._

 _Remember to review and hope you all have a great day._

* * *

Em bent over, her hands on her knees. Beads of sweat line her forehead as if she were coming down with a fever. Spitting onto the pile of liquid fear, she took a few shaky steps backwards and sat on the bottom step.

Two pairs of feet shuffled down the stairs. They slowed down the closer they got to the resting girl.

"Em." Felix's voice was cautious, as if he were waking a sleeping dragon.

Em turned her head slightly towards the sound but couldn't bring herself to spin around completely.

"Em? You okay?"

The teen tried to let out a scoff at her brother's terrible timing, but instead, a whimper escaped her lips. "Felix... I-I don't..."

"Hey, Em, listen - " Sarah's gruff voice cut through the worry and immediately caused Em to spring up from the step, as if she'd been electrocuted.

She glanced at her sister for what felt like the first time ever. Sarah looked more tired than usual, as if the last few moments had aged her ten years. Her eyes were dark, almost black. Emma tried to find a glimpse of hazel just to prove to herself that this was _her_ Sarah. Nothing.

Sarah reached her arm out to comfort her sister.

"Don't touch me." Em spat out.

"Hey. Listen. It's okay." Felix took a step forward.

"What? It's okay?! Are you kidding?!" Em held her stomach, feeling the overwhelming sense of nausea threatening her again. "I don't even know what to say."

Sarah frowned, crossing her arms in front of her, "We told you not to come, Em."

"Sarah," Felix warned.

"What? You told me not to come..." Em whispered, repeating her sister's ridiculous response and laughing slightly manically. "Who are you?"

"Em. Come on. I'm me. It's still me." Sarah's voice was kind.

The teen stared at her sister for a few moments, taking it all in. "Who - what are they?"

"If we tell you, you have to promise not to freak out or run away, yeah?"

Em nodded slightly.

Sarah took a deep breath, "Those women in there... they're my... clones."

Felix and Sarah stared at their younger sister. Their hands slightly outstretched as if ready to catch her should she faint at the revelation.

Emma's face was stoic, her eyes grave and knowing. But in a split second, that all changed. Em's face crumbled into laughter. A solo laughter, one that does not offer an invitation but is instead scarier than it's false sense of happiness.

Sarah and Felix exchanged confused glances until Em finally caught her breath, "I knew something weird was up between you and Felix, but nothing like..." She trailed off. "Jesus Christ..."

Fe rested his hand on Em's shoulder, "If you want to know what's happening, and believe me - I do too, you can."

"You promised me we'd tell each other the truth." Em glared at her sister.

"How could I explain this?" Sarah held her hands up, exasperated. "I have no bloody clue what I'm doing here, either! You think it's weird for you? There are two identical girls upstairs, with my face!"

It was Felix's turn to laugh then. At the ludicrous nature of their conversation. This laughter was a lot more inclusive as one by one, each of his sister's reluctantly gave in to the tension and fell into helpless hilarity.

"I promise, if you just come back upstairs with us, there will be a free bottle of whatever you want...just join us in this insanity."

Em exhaled a long shaky breath but accepted her brother's proffered hand, and slowly climbed the stairs back up to Fe's loft.

"Hey. You must be Emma," Dreadlocks Sarah smiled and waved as she perched on the end of the sofa, her legs crossed.

Em hesitantly walked back into the room, Fe's hand against the small of her back guiding her along. She gave a small, awkward smile back.

"I'm Cosima. This is Alison." Cosima gestured to the other identical who was still sat up straight but was eying Em suspiciously.

"Here, Em. Take a seat." Sarah gestured to an empty armchair across the room from the two familiar faced strangers.

"God, this is..." Em struggled to find the correct words to explain what this moment felt like. Something she was pretty sure most people wouldn't empathise with...

"Crazy?" Cosima finished her thought.

"That's one word for it."

"Welcome to the trip."

Felix walked over then, with a glass of something strong and handed it to Em who took an eager sip, trying to calm her nerves.

"Do you really think that's wise?" Alison's fingertips cradled her face, awkwardly.

Felix shot her a glare, his hand on Em's shoulder, "She just walked into a room full of her sister's clones, I think something to take the edge off is pretty much inclined."

At the mention of clones, Emma forgot how to swallow, instead choking a little on the cold drink, "Clones? You are sure?"

Sarah lifted her arms up slightly before dropping them in her lap, "Yes. Clones. Apparently, these are my clones." She nodded her head in the direction of the two women sitting on the couch as she took a swig from her glass, letting the burning sensation trickle down her throat.

Em looked at Felix for reassurance, for help but he just nods, taking a step closer to her. She looks around the room, at the women on the couch, "You're my sister's clones? Her genetic identicals?" Em almost scoffed.

"Well, what other explanation is there? We're certainly not triplets; there's far too many of us!" Alison stated.

"What? There's more of you?" Em looks desperately at her sister, who sighs, wanting all of this to have gone by a lot smoother.

"Oi, dreadlocks," Felix looks over at Cosima, "Why don't you make this a lot less confusing for all of us and explain all the sciency shite to my sister."

Cosima explained everything she had just told Sarah and Fe before Em had arrived as the eldest sister sat trying to telepathically send the young girl a warning not to mention Kira just yet.

The clones had already said how Emma could be involved in this, Sarah was not having them talking about her daughter as if she were a scientific experiment too.

"But what I really want to know is where _you_ stand in all of this, Emma." Cosima wrapped up her lecture, leaving Em looking very overwhelmed.

Em cleared her throat and sat up before speaking, "You just told me that my sister is part of an international, illegal cloning experiment and you want to talk about _me_?" She stood up, pacing around the small area behind her brother.

Cosima adjusted her glasses before letting her arms fly around as she spoke, "Listen, I totally get how bizarre this whole thing is," She ignored Sarah's sarcastic comment, "But I'm pretty certain you're not just a coincidence. You and Sarah are clearly biologically related… which is pretty cool to think about because that means you're related to Alison and I too…" Cosima's trail of thought ran off with her ever exuberant hands.

"Bloody hell, this is insane." Em looked over to Sarah, confused, who just rolled her eyes at the dreadlocked woman rambling on.

Felix, walked over from the kitchen area and took a seat, "So what does this mean for us. For the safety of my sister, if all these other clo—", Fe caught a glare from Alison who had already expressed how much she hated the word 'clone' and saved himself, "women, if all these other women have been killed. Surely they're coming for you lot next?"

"Yeah, thanks for pointing that out, Fe…" Sarah sighed.

"Well, that's why we needed Beth. She was able to find out if anything started to become suspicious and warn us." It was Alison's turn to speak.

"So what do we do now? Just wait around until one of us gets shot and then we'll know the killer's nearby?" Sarah ran her hand through her hair, nervously.

"Of course not," Alison scoffed, "That's where you come in, Sarah."

"Jesus bloody Christ."

"And on that note," Fe sprung to his feet, "I think we've heard enough for one evening. Em, we need to get you home before S realises you're not there."

Alison and Cosima nodded, the suburban mom hurrying out, muttering about needing a long bubble bath and bottle of red wine as Cosima waved goodbye to both Fe and Sarah, stopping to smile at Em, "It was really great to meet you, Emma."

Em let out a strained smile, "I'd like to say the same, but this was a lot to handle," Cosima laughed, "and just call me Em; only my foster mum calls me by my real name and that usually means I've pissed her off."

The scientist smiled again, "Okay well - see you all soon, I hope." before heading out of the loft.

Fe shut the door behind the women as Sarah fell back onto the couch and Em exhaled loudly before yelling, "WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED?"

There were a few moments of silence before all three siblings erupted into hysterical laughter once more.

Doubling over, Fe managed to splutter out, "Sarah has bloody clones!"

How else could they deal with the extremity of events that had just surfaced?

After a while, the London trio's laughter died down as they let what was happening sink in, leaving an eerie silence lingering in the air before Sarah whispered, "Shite."

Sarah insisted on taking Em back home, leaving Fe at his loft promising Em not to worry and to just act as normal as possibly around S.

The sisters didn't speak all the way home until Sarah pulled up outside the house.

"What about Kira?" Em turned to her sister, "What does this mean for her?"

Sarah sighed, "I don't know." She looked away towards Kira's bedroom window before Em could see her eyes turn glassy. "Please promise me you'll keep her safe. I can't be sure whether the killer knows about either of you but, you know, just make sure she's by your side all the time, yeah?"

"Of course. Always." Em replied quietly.

They sat in silence for a few minutes before Em opened the door and climbed out of the car, Sarah still staring at her daughter's darkened window.

"Em, wait," She quietly called after her sister and got out of the car, following her up the short path to the door. "Let me see her, just for a second."

Em looked torn, glancing into the house and back to her sister's desperate eyes, "You know I really shouldn't, Sar, what if S sees?"

"I'll be really quick, won't make a sound. I just need to see her, just once."

Who knows if the killer is right around the corner? The point is Sarah could be killed tomorrow and she will have never said goodbye to Kira. Em tapped the keys on each of her fingers, before sliding them into the keyhole and opening the door, gesturing for Sarah to go in first.

Sarah's smile reached her ears as she walked in, planting a thankful kiss onto Emma's head, and headed up the stairs.

Em followed her up before whispering, "Five minutes, Sarah," and heading into her room.

Sarah crept across the creaky, wooden floorboards, already knowing which ones to avoid stepping on after years of sneaking in and out of the house.

Kira's door was already slightly ajar; she was afraid of monsters, the nightlight giving Sarah a dim enough view into the room as she peered in and spotted the young girl enveloped in the covers.

Slowly she walked over, letting a few tears loose, "Baby," she knelt down beside the bed and lifted her hand to move Kira's curls out of her face.

The only sound that could be heard was Kira's soft breathing.

"I'm sorry, Monkey." She whispered, almost inaudible.

Her fingers traced gently from between Kira's eyes to the tip of nose, and Sarah smiled at the familiarity of the gesture she'd used to calm her daughter since she was a newborn.

Kira whimpered in her sleep, and Sarah's heart stopped for a second as she froze, but the child just adjusted her body to wrap her little fingers around Sarah's hand.

"Kira, I'm so sorry. I'm gonna sort this out." The mother whispered again, her thumb stroking the back of her daughter's hand as she kissed her head. "Goodnight, baby."

Siobhan lightly knocked three times on the door before walking into the teenager's room to find Kira wrapped up amongst the sheets next to a slumbering Emma.

"Morning, love," She smiles as Kira unravels herself from her aunt's arms, rubbing the sleep from her eyes and sits up.

Em wakes from the little girl's stirring and turns, opening her eyes ever so slightly, to reveal her foster mum, stood in the doorway.

"I'd wondered where you'd ran off to." S smiled as Kira slid out of bed and greeted her with a sleepy hug.

"I had a nightmare. There was a monster in my room!" Kira admitted as she slipped her hand into the older woman's.

"Oh dear. Shall we go get you dressed, and you can tell me what happened?" Kira nodded and began to lead S back to her bedroom.

"Emma, we're leaving in half an hour." S called back without so much as a glance towards the teen who had thrown her arm across her face, an attempt at blocking out the day, shaking her head at her foster mum's attempt at the 'cold shoulder'.

With all the information Em had taken in last night, Siobhan's anger towards the teen was irrelevant and her meeting today with the Principal was the last thing on her mind. Em had barely slept last night. Not only was her sister a clone but there was someone after Sarah. Someone after anyone associated with Sarah. Someone was killing them off.


	8. Gunshots Are Forever

_Hello everybody! Sorry I haven't posted in a while but it's because I have moved to the US! Classes just started back up again and everything is very chaotic adjusting to a new way of life. But I found some time during Labor Day to write so ... here it is!_

 _Don't forget to leave a review!_

 _Enjoy._

* * *

Her eyes were dark as she caught her reflection in the mirror. Emma had bent down to tie her shoelaces and when she stood up, there she was, staring back at another version of herself. She looked tired. Her skin was slightly sunken, not as youthful as she had remembered it being yesterday. Lips chapped and bitten. She'd do that when she was worried or angry or turned on. Em stepped closer to the mirror, focusing on her pupils. They looked like a normal woman's eyes. They looked real. But how could she tell that they were really her eyes? At this angle she doesn't recognise them. Maybe it's the light. Maybe she's still tired, but she isn't as familiar with her face as she was yesterday morning.

...

 _"I saw a girl kill herself, and she looked exactly like me."_

 _Beth is a cop. I'm a cop. I'm a cop. I'm Beth. Elizabeth Childs. Beth Childs._

 _"We're clones. We're someone's experiment and they're killing us off!"_

 _Her hair is red. My hands are red. That's my face, but I'm here breathing._

 _Kira._

 _We're clones._

BANG BANG.

Sarah catches her breath. She's clammy, her hair stuck to her forehead. Sweat tangling her into the bed sheets. She's been having the same nightmare for three days now. And then she wakes up and it starts all over again.

BANG BANG

...

"Okay. Reload." Alison walks up behind Sarah. "Try again."

As Sarah reloads the gun, Alison gestures to the piece in her clone's hands, and begins the lesson. "So, most city cops carry Glocks, but a Walther P-99, it has an optional sized hand grip. It's good for women. Beth said." Alison's eyes wander. She scratches her head and sighs. "Particularly women living their lives like rats in a lab."

Sarah fumbles with the Glock in her hand, it's a lot heavier than she thought it would be. "Is that what you think?"

"Well, what else could it be? Someone is covering up their illegal experiments by wiping us out."

Sarah was quite surprised and slightly impressed by the suburban mom's thought process. If they were clones, their existence would be illegal and it was plausible that the only way to avoid prosecution was to wipe out the subjects. Sarah hadn't thought about it until Alison had hypothesised.

"Well, whatever it is," Alison rambled on, "I need to protect my family. So Beth taught me how to shoot. For that I am grateful to her."

Sarah could see the loss and full gravity of their situation written across Alison's face. It was a deep wound and it was a reminder of the realness of their lives now. But to Sarah, it was still new. She hadn't lost anyone. Not really. Sarah couldn't help feel guilty at this freedom Alison didn't have.

"I'm sorry you lost her. Uh, but anything you can tell me about her will help."

"Well, I fail to see how someone like you can ... fill Beth's shoes." Alison retorted.

Sarah sighed and looked back to her targets. Shame on her for feeling sorry for the woman.

Alison continued, "Truth is, I barely knew Beth. She was all business, but I admired her. She didn't cry, she was discreet. She didn't bring her foster brother to my house. She didn't let her family find out."

"I didn't know the rules of Clone Club, did I?"

"Can you not use the C-word? Please?"

Sarah turned steadied her feet and held the gun up to the target.

BANG BANG.

...

"Do you know how humiliating this is?" S turned the radio down as the car stopped at a red light. She had been mumbling in fury to herself ever since they had dropped Kira off at school. Em's mind had been on other issues. "Now you're being quiet? Nothing to say for yourself now?"

Emma was watching the trees blur past as they drove. A wash of autumnal colours littered the window she sat watching from. It was warm in the car, but outside a sharp Canadian chill whispered through the breeze. Siobhan's tone was just as icy. "Look at me when I'm talking to you!"

Em tilted her head towards her mother's, "What do you want me to say?"

Siobhan's eyes were pleading but her countenance was defiant, angry. It made her look a lot older than her fifty seven years. "We can't go on like this Emma. I've given you everything I could. This school is one of the best in the city. Do you realise what you're wasting? I'm exhausted but it's not my life. This is your life. This is the only one you'll get!"

 _This is your life._ Em repeated her mother's words in her head. Since she found out about everything last night, her life seemed drunk, disoriented. Her vision was like a tunnel and everything she saw was slowed down and far away but her thoughts were wild and playing a game of rapid fire. _This is your life._ "Why does it mean so much?"

Siobhan reeled her concentration away from the road for a few moments to look at her daughter, confused. "Why does it mean so much?"

"Yeah. My life. Your life. That life, this life. It seems so insignificant, the fact that we are trying so hard. We'll win the lottery or our lives will be fucked up but this day-to-day bullshit is just that - bullshit. I can't control it any better than you can."

The indicators were the only source of sound until Siobhan blinked away her surprise. Her tone was softer but she was still angry, "So you'd rather give up? If you truly believe it's out of your control, you'd give up rather than make something out of as little as you can?"

Em remembered her dark eyes from this morning. They almost matched Sarah's. Alison eyes weren't as dark but they were mored wired, the flecks more vibrant. Cosima's were soft, warm. They were a mixture of a child's unblemished beliefs and a grown woman's insightful curiosity. One ripple created a plethora of waves.

The car came to a stop outside of the school gates. The women stayed in the car.

Em turned toward her mother, "I don't want to give up. I just don't want to give in."

Siobhan opened the door and climbed out of the car, Em followed. "Stop wasting your time. Make something of the bullshit."

Em smiled slightly and they headed into the school.

...

Sarah can feel Art's eyes on her as she pulls the trigger once, twice, three times. A perfect shot. Almost.

She puts the gun down and turns towards his impressed smile, "Maybe it's a lady grip Walther."

Sarah smiles, tilting her head, "You like your big Glock, don't you?"

Art chuckles and walks up to the hand piece, reloading with ease and efficiency. Sarah stands back. She remembers her new mantra. _I'm Beth Childs. I'm a cop._ "So, um, two sets of tyre tracks at the crime scene? One motorcycle and one car?" How much does he know?

"Yeah, but there had to be three people there. So if a killer's on a motorcycle, then what? He has an accomplice, drives the vic to the quarry? Or the vic has a driver, doesn't go to the police, panics, and half-ass buries the body?"

 _Shit._ Sarah thinks back to the night she met Katja. Art just perfectly described her actions after the shooting. "Yeah, the, um, body dump doesn't match the professional hit."

"Exactly. And I got something else for you, Beth, you're gonna love this." Art pulls out a photograph and flips it towards Sarah. "That was in the sniper's nest."

 _Red. Her hair was red._ The head of a Barbie doll was resting on the bushes. The doll's hair was crookedly cut and coloured to match the German's. _We're someone's experiment and they're killing us off._

"Yeah. We got a live one." Art was excited. "Phone calls, leaving clues, messing with us." He waits for Sarah to respond with as much enthusiasm but she is lost in the photograph.

Sarah jumps as her phone rings and she flings the photograph back at Art, "Detective Childs? All right, yeah, Suzuki? Okay, hang on a sec." She fumbles into her back pocket and plucks out a notepad and pen, flipping to a fresh page. "Okay, thanks."

Art watches as Sarah scribbles down the information and hang up the phone.

"Patrol spotted my stolen Suzuki down at Parkdale".

"It's a long shot. We may as well see if the tyres match." Art turns to pick up the gun and aims it at the driving range target.

BANG BANG.

...

The mother and daughter duo took a seat outside the principal's office, waiting to be called in. Emma couldn't help but sneak a glance at Mrs S, attempting to determine her mood before they headed into the office. Siobhan was exhausted. Raising three misfits and taking on Kira over the years had taken their toll and Emma couldn't help but feel guilty. S didn't deserve this much grief. She was a good mother. Despite what Sarah had to say, all her children knew she'd done well. They were all grateful that someone had taken them in, that she was good to them.

There was nothing she could do about it now. It was too late. The familial instinct to run was already embedded in her, perhaps copied and pasted from another source. Yesterday, S was just another obstacle in her path to self-destruction. Today, Em didn't know which way was up.

The teen sighed loudly. Mrs S' eyes flickered to hers quickly but before she could ask anything, the door opened and a tall man with a false smile emerged from inside the office.

"Mrs Manning, I'm Principal Milton. Pleasure to meet you." He proffered a sweaty hand to Mrs S who reluctantly shook it.

"Sadler. Siobhan Sadler." S corrected him with a matching fabricated grin.

He beckoned the two inside, gesturing for them to sit down as he pulled open a cabinet and swatted out a large file.

"Now, Emma Manning," He addressed the girl, without glancing up from his paperwork as if tearing his eyes away from her file would force him to forget any information he had about the teen. "You know the reason I've called you and your mother in today, yes?"

Emma shifted in her seat, clearing her throat, "A formal congratulation for my impeccable success as a student?"

Siobhan rolled her eyes, her voice was stern. "Emma." She warned and turned to Principal Milton, "I'm sorry."

"Ah, that British sarcasm. I'm still catching up!" Milton leant forward in his chair. "We are here to talk about your recent report card - amongst other things. Tardiness; attendance; failure to hand in assignments on your deadlines..." Finally he looked up at her from his greasy brow, a condescending grimace slapped onto his face. "Your behaviour, in general, does not really match that of this school." Principal Milton shifted his glare to Mrs S, "Were you aware of your daughter's behaviour, ma'am?"

"I knew that Emma's attendance wasn't perfect and that a lot of her missed days were due to her suspension, but we've had many discussions about it-"

"You went to Milbrook Middle School, is that correct?" Milton directed his question at Emma whose attention was on S, shifting in her seat, clearly pissed off at the principal's interruption.

"Yeah…?"

"But that's on the other side of town… surely the kids from _that_ school should filter into Jarvis Collegiate?" Milton's tone suggested he wouldn't usually associate himself with kids from Emma's old school.

"And that would have been the case had Emma's teachers not advised me to send her to this school for a better education. As you can see from her grades, Emma's a very bright girl," S sneered at the belligerent man, her patience wearing thin.

Milton pursed his lips, his eyes back on Emma's file, "That's quite true… Your test grades _are_ rather impeccable, Miss Manning... Tell me, where do you want to be?"

Emma waited for the man to continue but after a few moments of silence, the expectation of her reply hung in the air, "I… don't think I understand the question,"

"You were advised to attend this school, so tell me, what's the point in you taking a half hour bus journey to Northview Heights when you could have stayed at Jarvis? If you weren't planning on attending school, on gaining a fine education and graduating from a great school… why attend this school?"

Emma shrugs, "Does it really matter? I mean, as long as I'm getting good test grades, you're not affected, right?"

The principal pulls the glasses off his hooked nose, lowering into the chair behind him, "Although grades are important to the way this school is presented, it's also about reputation."

He looks back and forth at Emma and Siobhan, "I understand your domestic situation is…unique. Perhaps, the effects of _that_ , amongst living so far away from this school, makes your future at Northview… unviable. Maybe this isn't the place for you after all."

The atmosphere in the room suddenly becomes air tight as Mrs S sucks in a sharp breath, leaning forward in her chair, "Excuse me? Emma being adopted has absolutely no affect on her ability to complete school. I think it's outrageous that you, the principal of such a prestigious school should even be able to utter those kinds of discriminating thoughts amongst your colleagues let alone in front of your students and their parents!"

Milton holds his hands up defensively, "Oh no, no. Of course not! I didn't mean any offence by it, at all, Mrs Sadler. It's just, well - not to be prude but there is a certain type that goes here and I don't think Emma fits into it."

"S - leave it," Emma warns, futilely.

Mrs S is already on her feet, "Have you any idea how ridiculous you sound?! My daughter is the smartest in her class – your bloody papers show that! Yes her attendance isn't perfect and she has no desire to contribute to this school, but I can clearly see why when there are prejudice imbeciles like you running this place!"

Milton's face turns scarlet red, making his eyes bulge out even more than usual but Emma sits back in her chair beaming at her mother's fury.

"There may be a certain type who come to this school or live in this area of town but I thank the lord that Emma does not fit into that group of snooty, pretentious pigs. As far as I'm concerned and from what I've seen of this institution today, Emma is doing nothing wrong and you should feel privileged to have such an intelligent student here, you pathetic shrewd of a man."

And with that, Mrs S shot up, grabbing Emma by the wrist and towed her out of the office leaving Principal Milton wide eyed and shocked.

...

"I don't know what to say." Once they had driven a few blocks away from the school, Emma finally breathed.

S was still fuming, gripping so hard onto the steering wheel, her knuckles were the colour of snow.

"What a prick." She hissed out of thin lips, earning an impressed smile from the teen.

They drove in silence for a while, nothing but the sound of the engine and quick shallow breathing played like a record in the station wagon.

Siobhan spoke first, "I never asked you what you wanted."

Em turned towards her mother and then back at the road ahead, "Hm?"

"I didn't ask where you wanted to go. It was a great school, one of the best in the city and you had been asked to go there. I was over the moon, but I didn't ask if you wanted to go."

"Listen, the Principal's an arse and most of the kids aren't great but the classes are good, the teaching is good."

"You didn't want to go."

Em sighed, "I didn't know what I wanted, I was a little kid. At that stage I just wanted to be like the others, they'd tell me to jump and I'd say how high. My mum tells me I'm going to a school on the other side of the city - of course I'd rebel. But... it doesn't matter anymore, if you want me to go there, I will."

Siobhan pulled up outside the house and turned to the teen, reaching over to pull her tangled curls away from her eyes, "It's just a few months left until you graduate. Then you can rebel as much as you like..."

Em smiled, "You've already got a lifetime of grey hairs, mum. I don't want to be the sole source of blame..."

S nudged Em in false offence and they climbed out of the car, walking to the door. Siobhan stopped the girl before the door opened, "I _am_ proud of you, you know. You're so intelligent and independent. You're brilliant really."

Em leant over and wrapped her arms around S. Independent. Are we?

Siobhan's kiss interrupted her thoughts, "Don't give up. Never give in."

...

Sarah's breath was hot and heavy. Her ears were still ringing. It seemed like her feet hitting the solid gravel was now an autopilot setting as she ran, ran faster than she thought she knew how. She never thought she'd been this afraid. It was a con, a ruse, nothing she thought was too serious. It hadn't felt real. It wasn't real, until now. _I'm a cop. I'm Beth._

Panting, Sarah threw her body forward and shifted behind a brick wall. The gun thrust out in front of her slightly blocking her vision. What she couldn't see, she couldn't be afraid of. _I can do this. I can do this._

She runs across the street, breathing faster, faster. _Shit!_ There's the fur hooded coat. It jumps over the fence between two buildings, and Sarah jumps to the side. For a split second contemplating how much longer to run. Was Art okay. Should she have called for backup? A quick glance behind her and she could see the hood had gone.

And now here she was, right in the middle of the line of sight. Stranded in an abandoned part of the city with only discarded belongings and rotting crates to keep her company. Sarah whips the gun around frantically, ready to see the shooter but her shaky hands give away her true fear. She's in way over her head.

Reaching for Beth's phone she dials a number, careful not to look away from the area for too long at a time, "Art."

The voice on the other end of the phone is strained and muffled, "Where are you?"

"Uh, I think he went west, uh, between the two, uh, the row houses. I think he went into one of the abandoned buildings here," Sarah lowered her gun just slightly. The next thing she knew a hard, cold, blunt piece of metal collided into the back of her head. The phone and gun flying from her grasp as she fell down to the leaf littered floor. "Argh!".

Rolling over she spat the hair from her mouth and saw the hooded figure looming over her, a dagger aimed towards Sarah. _I'm a cop. I'm a cop. I'm Beth._ Sarah forced herself to be brave but this was it. This was it.

Here she was, lying flat on her back. Her eyes clamped shut and her hands up in surrender. So brave.

Sarah felt the figure edge closer to her and then, to her surprise, a croaky female voice escaped from the dark dripping with a strong Russian accent, "Good riddance, Elizabeth Childs."

At the sound of the dead girl's name, Sarah's eyes shot open to reveal the dagger fly towards her, "I'm not Beth!".

The blade stopped in mid strike. Sarah inhaled and exhaled quickly, certain that if she were standing up she would have thrown up. A gloved hand lifted the hood from the woman's head and out tumbled a yellow mess of crimped hair. Underneath the hair was Sarah's face.

 _Another one._

Her eyes were on fire. Large red rings circled the fiery pits as if they were singed. But the rest of her face was pale. She would have looked like a corpse were it not for the blood red circles encompassing her eyes.

Sarah felt her hot breath against her cheeks as the identical face moved inches away from Sarah's. The dagger was lightly trailed across Sarah's cheeks as the Russian woman searched for something. A crack in the facade? Proof of an imposter?

A child's tone flooded from the Russian's mouth, "Dirty little copy cop," She chastised. "Who are you?"

Sarah didn't have much time until that knife was going to dig deep into her skin. Her gloved fingers desperately scoured the dirty floor for a weapon. Then, with all the energy she had left in her, she drew a piece of rebar from the ground and sliced the Russian's side.

"ARGH!" The Russian yelled and stumbled to her feet, pulling out her gun and aiming it at a shaking Sarah. She hesitated at the trigger and then with laboured breaths, "Not yet. Not Beth," The gun disappeared from view as the identical scampered out of sight.

Crawling onto her side, Sarah whimpered, soft cries escaping her shaking body. The dagger lay neglected on the floor.

"Beth?!" She could hear Art around the corner.

Quickly, Sarah used her body to cover the knife and slip it into her coat as Art came into view.

"Beth?! Jesus Christ!" Art ran towards Sarah. His neck was bleeding.

Sarah shot to her feet as he approached, holding the gun up towards where she saw the identical run away.

"Are you okay? Hey?" Art was concerned, his voice broke.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." Sarah's head was dizzy.

"Hey, hey. Where'd he go?".

She lost her footing and fell slightly. Art grabbed her arm before she could hit the ground again and wrapped her arm around his neck, "Okay, okay. I got you. I got you, come on." He said, carrying her away from the abandoned space.

Sarah's legs were heavy. She could still feel her identical's breath warm on her face. Those eyes. Her eyes were so dark. Black. Sarah's mind went black.


	9. How Many Someones?

_**Sorry, sorry, sorry! It's been a while. But here's a short catch up chapter to get us all back into the swing of things.**_

 _ **Hope your 2018 is treating you well.**_

 _ **tryautumn x**_

* * *

Bioinformatics, DNA sequence analysis, genome sequencing, synthetic biology. Em had almost memorised page after page, book after book, anything she could get her hands on that was remotely related to human cloning. Still, it didn't make any sense. How? How could this really be happening. But it was. Somehow, someone had developed an underground illegal cloning experiment and somehow Em's very own sister was a clone.

How many Sarahs were there? Who created them? How many were being killed off? Why were they being killed off? Was anyone watching them? Surely, they couldn't just abandon a successful cloning experiment – they were almost thirty years old and still alive. Someone must be out there. Someone with answers.

* * *

"Wow, rich man!" Cosima's exuberance rang out through the laptop screen sitting Felix's bed. "This looks like a new blade inset in a much older handle".

Sarah turned the Russian clone's creepy looking knife around in her fingertips as the scientist inspected a photo copy of the very same weapon.

"So the fish is a bitch. Symbiotically speaking. Like a universal way back symbol of fecundity But these wings though –" Cosima's arms flap about as she continues down her spiral of speculation.

"Seriously, what is she on about?" Felix pours tea into the two mugs set aside for himself and Sarah who is sat on the bed, trying her best to focus.

"Quiet, she's just weird."

"Sorry, sorry, sorry." Cosima's train of thought is placed back on the correct track. "Okay, going on a tangent there. If she's not dead, we need to find her. Find out what she knows."

Fe climbs into bed beside his sister and almost scoffs at the screen, "Are you mad? She's a homicidal maniac."

"But we need to find out who she is, Sarah. She found us. She's got answers."

Sarah took a sip of the tea, too eagerly, burning the roof of her mouth, "The only way I'm gonna do that is go back to being a cop."

Felix sighed out of frustration, "No. No way. You're not going back to being Beth. Impersonating a dead officer, that's like a whole new crime."

"I think I'm safest with the cop, to be honest with you", Sarah seemed so detached.

"Did that actually just come out of your mouth?"

"Look, Art's already looking for the killer. I shadow him as Beth, let them figure out what happened to her and when I find that out, I can jump off and deal."

"Deal? I'm beginning to realise crazy is genetic".

Sarah rolled her eyes as Cosima took the moment to address scientific facts confirming Fe's offhanded snipe, "Well, yeah, bad brain chemistry can be genetic. But environment, that;s individual, right? I mean, that's the whole nature-nurture question right there."

"Okay," Fe bit into his McVities Digestive biscuit, "Let's talk nature. Out of nine so far, one's a psycho who killed four others. One committed suicide, one is a bloody soccer mom, and then there's you. My crazy sister is sane by comparison."

"Thanks, Fe." Sarah smiled at his backhanded compliment.

"I think this might help us figure out where she's coming from." Cosima holds up the photo once more, "So I'll look into it."

Three sharp chirps from Beth's phone steals the trio's attention away from one another as Sarah swipes the device from the nightstand. "Ah, police business. Art's got a lead."

"Okay," Cosima smiles, the plan to continue with the help of a cop was coming to fruition. Sarah and Felix didn't seem like they could complicate it in any way, in fact there was only one person who needed to stay out of the loop when it regarded the crazy killer clone, "Hey, you didn't show this to Alison by any chance, did you?"

Sarah looks up from the phone, briefly, "You joking? She'd crap her Lululemons. Got Alison on standby."

* * *

"Mum, can I borrow your laptop?" Em grabbed a glass and let the cold water from the tap fill over the brim onto her fingertips.

Siobhan hovered in the front room, staring at the blank TV screen, ear glued to the phone and regret from times before copy and pasted onto her expression, "Yes, once again 8 o'clock, before her bedtime."

Sarah, Em thought to herself, remembering the arrangement S and her older sister had made to spend the evening with Kira. Must be tonight.

"Is that my mum?" Kira looks up from painting.

"No," S replied bluntly.

Em snorted unwillingly at the blatant lie, earning a questioning look from the seven-year-old, a look so bizarrely adult and out of place on the child's face.

"What are you painting?" Em asked the girl, in efforts to distract her from the phone conversation. "Woah, easy on the red paint there, Kira."

"I'm making it for tonight."

"She'll love it, Monkey." Em smiled as S' hushed voice echoed through the phone.

She watched her little niece paint the portrait of her mother – one of the man Sarahs. Or was it just one of them? How would Kira fit into all of this? Em wasn't even sure that the girl she'd helped raise for all these years was even biologically related to her. Of course, she had her mother's unruly curls and Sarah's chin. Kira's skin tone was perhaps a shade darker than Sarah's pasty self but the eyes… those were Sarah's eyes all right. Except Kira's still had a sparkle of innocence and would light up with curiosity, where Sarah's had become dark and bitter. Would Kira turn out just like her mother, just like another Sarah?

"If you let her down, that's it. I won't let you see her again." A short pause and then a click. Siobhan huffed and placed the phone onto the coffee table.

Em raised her eyebrows in question, "Tad too dramatic, don't you think?"

"Well, we shall see."

"Don't worry about it, S. She'll be here." Em noticed her mother's stressful cleaning commence and probed her again, "So, can I borrow the laptop?"

"Uh, again? For your science project?" S looked up distractedly from the dishes.

"Mmhmm." Since Em had been so distracted with wrapping her head around the whole cloning thing, research and keeping herself sane etc., she had told her mother that all of her energy was being put into her science project.

She wasn't completely lying; nerdy-kid Henry had taken on the project with some light bat of the eyelids and all Em had to participate with was already within the realm of biological genetics. However, it was fair to say that although Em was going to class and staying in school for the duration of the day, her attention was nowhere near the SATs or group projects. With the weekend here, Em would spend as much time as possible finding out what the fuck was going on.

S hands the dish cloth to the teen, "As long as you do the rest for me."

Climbing upon the chair and lifting herself onto the counter, Kira's little hands opened the door and grabbed the cookies from the out-of-sight-out-of-mind hiding spot.

"Kira, only one. You'll get a stomach ache."

"What are we going to do today? I'm bored of painting." Kira managed to ask as crumbs fell from her mouth and embedded themselves into the knots of her woolen sweater.

"Well you can't be too tired for tonight but we could go to the market in town. I know they'll be setting up their Christmas decorations. What do you think?" Siobhan smiled at the little girl.

"Yeah, yeah!" Kira jumped up and down.

"Kira, listen Chicken. I need to talk to you about tonight".

"About mummy coming to see me!" She beams.

Kira's excitement prompts a concerned look from Siobhan as she glances at the older girl – your sister better not let her down. "That's the plan. Now if, for some reason, she can't make it – "

"But she is going to make it. She is going to read me a story and I can show her all the books I'm reading and – oh – ," Kira's little hands fly up to her face in an almost comedic and cliché damsel type way as the words tumble out of her excited little body, "We should bring the camera to the market and take lots of pictures to show mummy!"

Em folded the cloth and brushed her hands together, lightly amused by her nieces rambling delight, "Ah sounds fun, Monkey. I think I'm going to work on this science stuff all day. Bring me back something good though?"

Kira's bottom lip jutted out into a sulky pout but Siobhan looked beside herself, "Who are you and what have you done to my teenager?"

"Oh my God. Get over it, you bloody weirdo," Em sighed, exasperated but laughed it off as she grabbed S' laptop from the dining table and took it back up to her room. Out of sight, out of mind.

Siobhan shook her head in amusement and returned to giving Kira the cautionary Hurricane Sarah weather warning, fearful of the hustler's fickleness.

* * *

Sarah slams the car door shut and struts towards the station. Every damn time! As fucked up as Sarah's return to the city has been, she is back for Kira and S can't keep dangling her daughter in front of her.

This time, it's different. Everything is different.

"Eye witness says we got it wrong," Art begins as Sarah walks into the office. "Jane Doe's killer is female, about Beth's size".

Sarah shrinks away from Art's glance towards her as if her eyes alone could give away who the killer was…who she looked like.

"As for the Jane Doe," Another detective began, "It isn't easy reconstructing a skull that's gone through a gravel crusher, but we do have cause of death." She points to the fragmented skull, "This hole, .223 caliber."

Shit.

"So, we have a long range, high powered weapon. Name me one homicide ever pinned on a female sniper." Art challenges.

The chief sat right in front of Sarah, "How's that profile?"

"Female killers often suffer from chronic detachment. Isolation breeds sociopath. This song, 'fearfully and wonderfully made'; she's a religious fanatic.

"The stick figures, the doll's head, fortune teller. Early childhood development issues… could be extreme abuse?"

Sarah watches as the whole team edge closer and closer to the truth.

"But she's also careful. No prints on any of this so far."

Any prints you'll find will lead straight back to the victim.

"And the DNA evidence?" Art asks.

"On rush, but we're still a week away from knowing if they match anyone on file."

They will. A few.

And if Sarah doesn't do something soon, the results are going to lead straight back to Beth.

"Nothing on Jane Doe's prints? Her hand didn't give us a match?" It took a few noticeable moments for Sarah to realise the Chief was aiming his question at her.

"No… uh no, they did not". She shook her head, trying to feign disappointment.

Art hesitates, his eyes always questioning Sarah's answers, before he begins, "Look, the bottom line is we're chasing a calculated female killer who loves playing games. Like these fortune tellers."

Angie begins to explain the role of the fortune tellers, and how they work.

"Childs? Childs?"

Sarah turns around, her eyebrows raised in question at the female officer.

"Call for you."

Thank God, Sarah needed to escape from under Art's distrustful glare and that room full of…

"Detective Childs," She answers.

That same thick Russian accent breathes through the phone, "No you're not. Beth is dead, isn't she."

Sarah drops the act, "What do you want from me? You could have killed me but, here we are."

"You didn't feel it?"

"What?"

"We have a connection."

Any fear about whatever the psycho doppelganger was going to say drained from Sarah. She was just that, a psycho… on drugs or some shit. Almost laughable, "Uh, you mean when I stuck that piece of rebar in your liver? How's that going?"

The Russian ignores Sarah's questions, "I need to know who you are. Let's meet again." She inhales sharply, she's in pain. "I never got your name".

"I never got yours,"

"Helena," The word sounds even more foreign from the psycho's lips. A name so dainty and ladylike. So wrong.

Sarah scrambles for a pen and paper, "And uh, last name?"

"You're doing police work, but how long can that last? When the real police find me, you are me, I am you. Both the victim and the cop." Helen teases.

"Yeah, that would be bad for both of us." Sarah replies.

"So come see me. Discuss. I already gave you directions".

She hangs up just as Art and the others walk past.

"The numbers. They're addresses." Art walks towards the wall map.

They figured it out. Sarah was too late. They were all going to pay a visit.

* * *

Emma paced around her brother's loft as he faced his canvas, paint splatted arms and pale arse hanging out of his sullied apron, "But how can you just act like nothing's happening? We need to do something! This isn't normal, Fe."

"Ah, my darling, what can we do? I am but a humble painter, I draw exquisite genitalia. I'm not versed in the intricate dealings of clone hunting".

Em rolled her eyes, "Fe! I'm serious. Ugh, this is so fucked up!". She sighs, rubbing her eyes before turning back to the books splayed out across the couch.

At that moment, Fe's phone began ringing.

"Detective Childs," Felix answer, earning a classic Sarah eye roll, "Is it my imagination or does Cosima have bigger breasts than you?"

"Let me hear, let me hear!" Em voices at the mention of her sister's fake persona.

Felix presses a button and suddenly Sarah's rushed voice echoes around the loft, "There's no way I can make dinner with Kira tonight."

At this, Em closed her notes and turned towards the phone, frustrated, "You're joking. You've got to."

"I can't. I'm stuck with Art and this bitch is right on top of me. I can lead her straight to Kira." Sarah thinks back to the sketchy phone call the department received from an unknown suspect. Of course, Sarah was the only one who knew that the guy they were looking for was in fact a woman, a psychotic, murderous Russian. Her clone. Beth's clone. Sarah shudders.

"I know, but S gave you an ultimatum. She's gonna cut you off." Fe probed her sister, reminding her of what was at stake.

"Rock and a hard place here, Fe".

"Yeah, your permanent address", Em sniped.

Sarah hesitated as a small seed grew, "I do have one really idiotic idea."

"Oh good."

"I need to be two places at once, yeah?"

"Yeah," Fe answered hesitantly, worried as to where this was going.

"Well, if anybody can do that, we can."

"Are you effing serious?" Felix spun around, finally distracted enough from his artwork.

Em's head fell into her hands, "Jesus, Sarah."

A small smile grew on Sarah's face, "Yeah, suddenly I am".

* * *

So, here they were. Smack bang in the middle of suburbia.

"Wow." Em breathed, staring out the car window at the clean, symmetrical row upon row of WASP houses.

"I know." Felix slammed the car door shut. "Sarah better get rid of this bloody psycho; this is the last time I enter White-ville."

Em looked down at her attire, glancing across at Fe's, "We look like the black and white part of The Wizard of Oz… except everything is in pastel colour."

"Just follow the boozy brick road."

The siblings hastily walk around the corner and through the back gate into Alison's garden.

Felix knocked on the door and soon enough, Alison peered through the curtain and opened the door.

"What happened? Is she okay?" She probed.

"Yeah, she's okay. She's fine," Felix sighed.

"That doesn't sound okay." Alison shut the door behind Em, who caught a glance at Alison's peacemaker, resting in her hand.

Em leaned into her brother's shoulder, "Why the hell does a soccer mom have a gun?"

Fe brushes her off and carries on, "Sarah needs your help with her daughter."

* * *

 _ **Let the chaos ensue!**_


	10. Fool for You

Em dried her hands on the pink lace towel and picked up a purple bottle sat on Alison's bathroom countertop. The musty scent of overpowering lavender floated into her nose.

"Shit." Em stifles her coughs as she exits the room.

"I'm sorry, but she wants me to impersonate her in front of her own daughter. Who she hasn't seen in almost a year." Em found her brother sat opposite her sister's most virtuous clone. Alison's back was as straight as a ruler and her brows furrowed at an intense angle as she looked over disapprovingly.

"Ten months." Em pipes up as she returns to her seat next to Fe.

Alison ignores the teen, "This is terrible parenting, Felix. I mean, that poor child."

The teen rolled her eyes and turned back towards her brother whose frustration isn't well hid, "I don't think you understand the situation here. If Sarah misses tonight, then she may never get Kira back".

Alison huffs, "I'm sorry, but a request like this… Maybe the child is better off with your foster mother".

Felix leans forward, his voice grows louder, "Excuse me? Sarah is out there risking her life, playing cat and mouse with killer clone so that _your_ kids don't end up orphans and you think that she should lose her child for that?" Upon this outburst, Alison looks embarrassed at her selfishness.

Felix continues, "Yeah, I think you need to step up here, sister".

Alison clears her throat, straightens her back even more, "Well, I did just play Annelle in Steel Magnolia".

"Seriously?"

"Glendale Community Theatre."

"Well it was terrible casting…" Felix looked over the clone.

"Um, it was actually very good acting, Felix. Trust me, Sarah's no stretch. I got great reviews."

"From the whole neighbourhood I'm sure…"

"Okay, enough!" Em interrupted their bickering. "Doesn't matter how good you reckon you are, the only person you need to convince is S and, believe me, she'll be able to tell."

Alison turns to Em, "So, where do we start?"

* * *

 _We have a connection._

Sarah stood outside the station, leaning against the car as she tried to make sense of what happened to her dreaded clone.

Cosima's accent rang through the phone, "So, what do the cops know?"

"She's a churchy psychopath, duh… She's a loner, probably abused as a child."

Sarah could hear papers rifling as Cosima explained her findings, "Okay, so the fish reads Christian and crafted onto a weapon, a personal crusade."

"Great, is that it?" Sarah's sarcasm melted through the line. Cosima rambled on about the crazy killer clone but Sarah's mind travelled to a scary place; one where Helena was right by her, breathing down her neck. The killer clone had been _here._ She had been seen. She was so close to Sarah and yet the Brit couldn't stop her. Could she even stop her?

"Sarah. Sarah?" Cosima's voice pulled her out of her thoughts.

"Hmm? So, they hate us? And she's killing us, even though she's identical to us."

"Well, but if you were a messed up, abused loner whose faith compels you to belong and somebody that you trusted told you that this was the way to redeem yourself in the eyes of God, I mean…"

"Yeah, I might become an angry angel too."

* * *

Sarah ignores Art's glare as he walks up beside her, "Something you want to tell me?"

She heads to the desk and flings her coat around the back of the chair, "About Paul? No. I've got him wrapped around my finger."

Truth is, however, Sarah was beginning to doubt her seduction skills. Paul was a live bomb and she didn't know how much pressure she could apply before he exploded.

"What's he talking about? Leaving? We just got you back, Beth."

Art was referring to one of the many side effects of having a killer clone. Moments before, Paul had charged into the precinct and come face to face with Art, spitting out Beth's anxieties and existential crises for the whole station to hear. Paul's presence was just one more broken cog in the machine went it came to pulling off this whole charade. He was a problem.

But Sarah had to focus on the biggest threat. Which brought her here. Sat at Beth's desk and listening to the now familiar yet haunting accent whispering through the telephone. "We have a connection."

Sarah drops Beth's accent, "You want to tell about that?"

"In person. You have my invitation." Helena hangs up just as a new email comes through.

Sarah selected the video attached and a pale, dark eyed clone appeared on her screen.

Sarah frantically turns the volume down as the fake Beth begins to speak.

"My name is Detective Beth Childs. I murdered Margaret Chen. It wasn't an accident. I shot her on purpose."

* * *

"Do you own anything that isn't pink?" Felix pulls a face as he picks up yet another one of Alison's fluffy garments.

"Hey, hey! Be careful with that. It was a Christmas gift from my mother." Alison delicately folds the piece of clothing and places it upon the growing pile of rejected 'Sarah' costumes.

"Not 'Hey'. You're a punk. Be one."

Alison clears her throat, "Oi!".

"Better!"

"Oh Christ. This is never gonna work. It's 'S' you're trying to fool, not a bunch of kids at a 'Punch and Judy' show." Em scoffed, rolling her eyes.

"Well, not with that attitude." Fe muttered as he began cutting up Alison's 'Glendale Community Theatre' shirt.

"No, no, Emma. I can do this. I can do this." Alison repeats, almost questioning herself rather than convincing the teen.

"Yeah, this'll work...this, won't." Felix sighs, holding up the now ripped pink shirt.

Em flopped onto the couch, a profound sense of futility pushing her further into the cushions.

"Hmm," Felix eyes up Em's outfit and raises a single eyebrow, "Take your shirt off."

"You what?"

* * *

It had worked, she couldn't believe it but it had actually bloody worked!

Back at Alison's, Em had begrudgingly switched outfits with the soccer mom and they had made their way to S' house. Somehow, Alison's pantomimed portrayal of Sarah had garnered great (passable, at the very least) reviews and S had bought it! In fact, the only ones acting particularly out of the ordinary were Felix and Em, grinding their teeth and biting their nails in anxiousness as Alison pulled off the charade.

Em stayed behind when Felix left to take Alison back to suburbia, but before they vanished, S had extended Sarah (Alison) an olive branch, allowing her to pick up Kira from school, "as long as you bring her straight home".

"Bye." Em shut the door behind her, not before giving Alison a relieved smile, and turned towards her mother. "Well, unleash the doves, world peace must be around the corner."

S gave a slight smirk, "Piss off, you." Before disposing of the teapot and mugs into the sink.

"No, seriously. It was nice. Having all of us in one room again. No fighting. No spilled blood!" Em leaned against the couch, watching S move around the kitchen. It had been a successful ruse, so why did the room feel so… off? "Mum? You okay?"

S turned towards Kira, who was tidying up her art table, "Off to bed now, Chicken. I'll be up in a bit."

"Mum, she'll be fine at pick up tomorrow." Em tried reassurance.

"That wasn't Sarah." S took a seat at the kitchen table.

You know when you're a kid and you fall over but there is a split second that you are aware of your body moving slowly towards the ground and it feels like forever until you finally make contact? That's how Em felt in that moment.

"Of course it was." Em tried denial. What the fuck does S mean? How could she know? There's no way she could know. How would her first conclusion be that Sarah was a clone? Was she involved in this all too? Alison was convincing enough, right? Right? Em's mind was racing as her body slowly fell.

"There was no fighting. She was so… so appreciative. Sarah would never admit that she was wrong, let alone admit that I was right!"

"It's still Sarah. She's just finally showing up." Em tried acceptance.

Finally showing up, how ironic.

"I'm just, I'm not used to an honest word on the subject." S let herself finally settle in the idea that maybe this time, it would work out. Maybe this time, she'll stay.

* * *

 _Welcome back and to all my new readers Welcome to the trip!_

 _Another big apology for my hiatus! But, I did manage to visit Toronto for a few days and stayed around the same area where the external shots of Felix's loft were filmed! Definitely got a good feel of the place and it gave me loads of inspiration and ideas for this story._

 _Thank you so much for all your kind words, it really does encourage me to write more when I know people are reading and enjoying this little story._

 _I know this chapter was short and not great but I needed to give you something as I have been taking my time on the next chapter._

 _Have a lovely day/evening._

 _\- tryautumn_


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